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FIVE GENERATIONS 



OF A 



LOYAL HOUSE. 



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LONDON : 
GILBERT AND RIVINGTON, PRINTERS, 

ST. John's square. 



FIVE GENERATIONS OF A 
LOYAL HOUSE, 

PART I. 

CONTAINING THE LIVES OF 

RICHARD BERTIE, 

AND HIS SON 

PEREGRINE, LORD WILLOUGHBY. 



By lady GEORGINA BERTIE. 



j " The family had deserved well of the country for F/r^ SUCCESSIVE GENERATIONS.' 

! Retrosffctive Revie-w, 2d Ser. vol. ii. p. 202. 

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LONDON : RIVINGTONS. 

MDCCCXLV. 



X 






'■'^ -l 



PREFACE. 



" And yet they think that their houses shall continue for ever, and that 
their dwelling-places shall endure from one generation to another, and call 
the lands after their own names." 

" This is their foolishness, and their posterity praise their saying." 

These passages may appear singularly chosen to head the his- 
torical account of a family through succeeding generations, con- 
demning, as they do, the pride of those who seem to think that 
what they are permitted to enjoy must necessarily endure for 
ever, and the vanity of such of their posterity who exult in the 
boast of their forefathers ; and yet they are specially here selected 
to express the writer's full conviction of the instability of all 
temporal possessions. For as to antiquity, " a thousand years in 
the Lord's sight are but as yesterday." As to wealth, "the rich 
shall carry nothing away with him when he dieth, neither shall 
pomp follow him." And with regard to fame, "man being in 
honour, abideth not." 

The following treatise, therefore, is not undertaken without a 
due consideration, in submission to the sacred warning, of the 
fleeting and perishable nature of all earthly tenures, and all 



VI 



PREFACE. 



^ 



human mementos ; nor has partiality in recording the good and 
great, thrown a veil over the evil deeds of members of the family. 
If Leopold, in the spirit of the barbarous age in which he lived, 
cruelly avenged the death of a son ; or Jerome, at a later period, 
offended, by improperly resenting the mention of these circum- 
stances by a preacher, these events are as truly narrated as the 
subsequent repentance of the same Jerome ; the sufferings, exile, 
and dangers of Richard Bertie and his wife, the Duchess of Suf- 
folk, for conscience sake ; the great military qualities and gallant 
spirit of Peregrine Bertie, Lord Willoughby ; or the heroic 
valour, and devotion to the cause of his sovereign, which cost 
Robert, Earl of Lindsey, his life, on the field of Edgehill, and 
which, drawing his sons in the footsteps of their father, made two 
of them sacrifices in the same righteous cause, and induced his 
noble heir, Montagu, to offer himself (with others of the Privy 
Council) in the room of the intended royal victim, if thereby he 
might assuage the malice of his enemies. 

These last-mentioned incidents are gratifying to record, in the 
history of a family which bears as its crest the palm or date-tree, 
the emblem not only of victory, but of virtue, and whose motto 
gives the latter qualification its due pre-eminence over the force 
of arms, or " the pomp of heraldry ;" pronouncing (in allusion to 
the armorial bearings of the shield to which it is appended) 




INTRODUCTION. 



The plan of this work is so simple, that very few observations 
become necessary in the shape of introduction. The accounts 
of the family in very early times are much enlivened by the 
narrative in the French and Latin manuscripts, which by con- 
necting causes and events, and weaving an interesting history of 
the whole, has embraced a period of about four hundred years, 
and is corroborated, as to names, dates, and leading circumstances, 
by others preserved in the British Museum, and elsewhere, as 
will be remarked more at large in the sequel. Robert Glover, 
who was Somerset Herald in the time of Queen Elizabeth, does 
not stop here, but continues the history down to his own time, he 
being contemporary with Richard Bertie and his son Peregrine, 
Lord Willoughby. The authorities for every account will either 
be given with it, or in the notes, and such only quoted as may 
be trusted to for impartiality and accuracy. The perils and 
narrow escapes of Richard Bertie and the Duchess afford a 



/ 



1 



tempting field for the exercise of the imagination ; but the sim- 
ple narrative of the facts is sufficiently romantic without the aid 
of fiction. It is chiefly gathered from Holinshed's very interest- 
ing Chronicle. Amongst other authors of note here quoted, much 
has been collected from Strype, Dugdale, Fuller, Rapin, from 
the Biographia Britannica ; and much from the more original, 
and therefore more valuable manuscript treasures of the British 
Museum, the Bodleian Library, and the State Paper Office. 



THE HOUSE OF BERTIE. IX 



BERTIE qui in armis gentiliciis de argento tres arietes bellicosos proprii 
coloriSj quartiiatim cum castello argento, bellico impetu fracto, in campo 
nigro portabant. 

Phillippus Bertie qui generis sui originem continuato stemate tenebat a 
Leopoldo Bertie, constabulario Castri Doveriae tempore Regis Edek-edi, ante 
conquestum Anglise, intravit Angliam in famulitia Regis Henrici Secimdi, 
ano Christi 1154, cui ob res bello prseclare gestas cliarior fact*^ idem Rex 
dedit omnes terras in villa de Bertiesteit, non procul a Medestone, in com. 
Cantiae, quondam Leopoldi antecessoris sui, cujus villa nomen vulgarius 
(licet corrupte) hodie appellatur Barsted, ab istius Pliillippi progenetorib|. 
Bertiestet, id est Bertiorum villa dict*^. 

Martinus Bertie, Armiger. 

BoBERTus Bertie, Armiger. 

Will'mus Bertie, Armiger. 

Edwardus Bertie, Armiger. 

HiERONiMus de Bertie, qui vixit tempore Regis Henrici Quinti, 

sepultus in monasterio de , cujus pars maxima ab 

ipso edificata fuit. 

RoBERTus DE Bertie, Armiger. 

RoBERTUS DE Bertie, Armiger. 

Will'mus de Bertie, Armiger. 

Thomas de Bertie, Armiger, Capitaneus Castri de Hurste. 



Thomas Bertie. Ricardus Bertie, =;: Catherina, filia et 



Armiger, 

fil. et hseres, 

2dus Maritus. 



hseres Willielmi 
Dom~i Willoughby 

de Eresby, 
Ducissa SufFolcise. 



Peregrinus Bertie, Susanne Bertie, 

fil. et hseres Ricardi Comitissa Cancise, 

et Catherinse uxor nuper D ni 

Ducissse Suffolcise. Grey de Ruthyn, 

Comitis Cantise, 
mortus sine prole. 



[From a pedigree dated 1573. Vide also Harleian MS., British Museum, 
No. 245. fol. 95, b ; and Vincent's Baronagium, in College of Arms, marked 
No. 20, f. 22. See also Appendix, art. A.] 

a 



HISTORY OF 




LDover Chapel.] 



Leopold de Bertie, from whom the above pedigree is deduced, 
and whose posterity eventually attained the highest degree of 
rank in the British peerage, was constable of Dover Castle in 
the time of King Ethelred, and did himself derive his descent 
from an ancient and noble stock ; namely, from a family of free 
barons of Bertieland ^ in Prussia, (or as a curious old French 
document, which will be presently quoted, expresses it) " Franck 
Barons en Bertieland." It appears that his ancestors first landed 
on the shores of our island, in company with the Saxons, at the 
period of their memorable invasion. Their proximity to that 



1 Bartenland Bartonia, eine Landschafft in den Brandenburgischen Preus- 
sen, welclie de alle Pregel und Angerapp zu Greutzen hat es ist ein kleines, 
aber fruchbares Stuck Landes, welches mit vielen Seen versehen ist. Preus- 
sische Staats-Geographie, pt. I. p. Ixxxi. 



LEOPOLD. XI 



nation may account for the appellation of Bertie, the syllable 
Bert being well known as of Saxon origin, and occurring in 
many a name of note, as Egbert, Ethelbert, and the like \ This 
descent, so interesting to the lovers of antiquity, is to be found 
in old manuscripts, preserved in more than one celebrated library. 
The British Museun\, the Bodleian, and Ashmolean libraries, and 
the library of Queen's College, Oxford, are all in possession of 
early MSS., tallying with and confirming the above account, ori- 
ginally transcribed from an ancient parchment by Robert Glover, 
esteemed the first herald and antiquary of his day. But to return 
to Leopold de Bertie : his command of a castle on the frontiers, 
such as Dover, was no doubt a charge of especial trust, when 
the Saxons were in perpetual fear of invasion from the Danes. 
Besides his office of constable, Leopold was the possessor of a 
castle and town named Bertiesteit, near Maidstone, in the county 
of Kent, steit or stadt (in Saxon) signifying a town. We read of 
a violent dispute that occurred between him and the Augustine 
monks of Canterbury, on the subject of tithes over certain lands 
belonging. to him. It would appear that these monks laid claim 
to the lands themselves ; and as Leopold was not disposed to 
yield them, and they attempted to seize them by force of arms, a 
most serious commotion was the consequence. In the affray that 
ensued, the eldest son of Leopold was slain, and the incensed 
father flew to seek redress at the hands of his sovereign, the 
weak and perfidious Ethelred. Meanwhile Elphegus, the Arch- 
bishop of Canterbury, had enlisted the King on the side of the 
monks ; and we may imagine the stern indignation of the venge- 

^ See Dr. Ingram's " Memorials of Oxford," note to page 3 ; and his 
translation of the Saxon Chronicle, as to Bertric, or Brithric, p. 182-3. 

a2 



Xll 



ELPHEGUS. 



ful Leopold, on finding the monarch deaf to his eloquent repre- 
sentations of the wrongs he had sustained. In the heat of his 
resentment he had recourse to Sweyn, King of Denmark, as did 
many of the great men of the period, even without the provoca- 
tion of such private injuries. Earnestly did he solicit the Danish 
King to invade the dominions of Ethelred^ and expel the mon- 
arch who had so mortally offended him, promising to afford him 
every facility of access. Sweyn was easily induced to listen to 
a proposal so flattering to his inclination, and made his appear- 
ance at the head of a large and formidable force ; one half of his 
fleet separating from the rest, to assault the Northumbrians, the 
other directing its attack on the county of Kent. Nor was 
Leopold an inactive or inefficient ally. He soon presented him- 
self on the field, adding his forces to those of Sweyn, and toge- 
ther they successfully besieged the town of Canterbury, and 
obtained possession of it, carrying away captive the unfortunate 
Archbishop, and cruelly murdering the monks by nines \ whilst 
they only spared the tenth, in revenge for the death of the son of 
Leopold, slain in the affray concerning the tithes. So remarkable 
a catastrophe may be expected to be mentioned in other chroni- 
cles of the times, and accordingly Fuller, in his "Worthies," in 
treating of the venerable Elphegus, tells us of the " decimating " 
of his monks, by an army of barbarous Danes ; and Stow and 
Baker also confirm the account ^. So overpowering was the 

^ This cruel reversing of the usual meaning of the word decimation, ap- 
pears to have been a barbarous mockery on the part of the heathens of that 
period, as many historians relate a similar practice, especially among the 
Danes. See also, '' History of the Anglo-Saxon Church," by Dr. Lingard, 
vol. ii. p. 322, who, in speaking of this very massacre, says, "of forty monks, 
four only remained." 

2 Some chronologers fix the date in 1011, 1013, or 1014. Robert Glover, 



FLIGHT OF BURBACH. 



Xlll 



King's sense of danger, and so imminent the peril in which he 
stood, that abandoning his dominions to the mercy of a powerful 
enemy, he sought refuge in the court of Richard, Duke of Nor- 
mandy, his brother-in-law. But the condition of human affairs 
is ever subject to vicissitudes, and the death of Sweyn changed 
the aspect of the times in England. Ethelred, in consequence of 
that event, returned to his kingdom, and with unrelenting cruelty 
poured his vengeance on the now miserable Danes. Burbach de 
Bertie, sole heir and survivor of the deceased Leopold, conscious 
that the deeds of his father made him obnoxious to the now 
ruling influence, took refuge at the court of France, where King 
Robert received him honourably. There he married a French- 
woman, and adopting her country as his permanent home, dwelt 
there, and his posterity, till the year of our Lord 1154. 

That year witnessed the arrival in England of King Henry the 
Second, first of the line of Plantagenet. Among those who 
attended him to this country, when he came to claim the throne 
of his ancestors, was one, also a claimant to the possessions of 
Bertie ; Philip de Bertie, *' de eadem familia," as those of the 
same name above mentioned, returned with him, and being in 
high favour with his sovereign, on account of his valour and 
great military talents, " sa grande dexterite et prowesse de 
batailles," he by his grace recovered his ancient patrimony at 
Bertiesteit, which he and his posterity continued to enjoy for 
many ages. ~ 



in his transcript, writes 1014 ; and the Chartulary of St. Augustiae's, in 
Canterbury, gives 1009 as the date of the slaughter of the Archbishop 
Elphegus. This document is in the Exchequer, in the custody of the Rolls 
Court, Stone Tower, Westminster Hall. So difficult is it to reconcile dates 
at this remote period. 




To this Philip (fifth in descent) succeeded Jerome de Bertie, 
of whom some circumstances are related, remarkable as illus- 
trating the manners of the times. We find that he resided during 
the reign of Henry the Fifth at Bertiesteit, and that one Sunday 
in Lent he was present at a neighbouring church, at the preach- 
ing of a monk, who gave him great offence. The old quarrel 
between the above-mentioned Leopold and the monks of Canter- 
bury see, or rather its fatal consequences, in the murder of so 
great a number of the latter, was the subject of the discourse, 
mingled with invectives against all such as hate or contemn 
the condition of monks, and denunciations of the just wrath 
of the Almighty against the perpetrators of such murderous 
deeds \ 

This allusion to the sins of his ancestor, roused the choler of 
the naturally impetuous Jerome ; and at the close of the sermon, 
he rushed on the audacious preacher, and (it is related) would 
have martyred him on the spot, had not the bystanders interfered 
between them, and rescued him from the consummation of so 
great a crime ^ This outrage did not remain unnoticed ; an ac- 
count of it was transmitted to the Archbishop, and the offender 
excommunicated. Being excommunicated, neither money nor 



^ J. Petit Andrews, in his History of Great Britain, vol. i. part 2, says 
" Somewhere about this time, (1413,) Jerome de Bertie, a Baron residing at 
Berstead, in Kent, happening to hear a monk declaim with violence against 
the misdeeds of his ancestor, Leopold, rushed upon him." — Apud Collins's 
MSS. 

2 Collins, who drew up his account of these circumstances from a MS. in 
the Cotton Library, previous to the fire which destroyed so many of its 
records, has evidently mistaken the old French word, ruer, to rush, for tuer, 
to kill ; and subsequent biographers, without reference to the original source, 
have, in quoting him, perpetuated the mistake. 



prayers could here obtain remission of the sentence of the church, 
accused as he was of having doubly sullied himself, by becoming 
a party to the violent deeds of his progenitor. Jerome was 
obliged to go to Rome to procure absolution \ which was granted 
to him on certain conditions ; and it is but justice to observe, 
that his penitence for his rash act seems to have been most sin- 
cere, as he not only performed what was commanded him, but 
voluntarily bestowed a still larger portion of his worldly goods 
on the church which he had offended. It was required of him 
at Rome, that on his return to his native country he should pub- 
licly attend mass in the monastery of Canterbury, confess his 
sins, and supplicate for pardon from the Archbishop and monks ; 
that then only should he receive absolution and benediction, and 
be admitted to the Holy Communion, " le corps du Seigneur." 
Till all this should be accomplished, he was commanded to abs- 
tain from flesh ; and, as the fruits of his repentance, to bestow 
two thousand pieces ^ of gold on the monastery. But not con- 
tent with this, he greatly impaired his fortune by a munificent 
addition to the monastery^, in the chapel of which he was 



^ This was done agreeably to a law passed in the reign of Henry the 
Second, which for the offence of striking a monk in church, condemned the 
offender to go to Rome to seek absolution. 

2 Ecus. 

3 Grimaldis Origines, Monastic Records, p. 17. " There are few or none 
among the great families of England who have not been founders or bene- 
factors to some monastery or religious house ; and the monks and canons 
have, for the most part, taken special care to record in the leiger book of 
their respective houses, the history of their founders' and patrons' families, 
setting down their death, with the most remarkable circumstances of their 
lives, and where buried ; which seems also to be done at the time when 
every thing happened, or soon after, and is therefore of greater credit." 



XVI 



JEROME S BURIAL. 



buried, where his arms were placed upon a pillar ; namely, three 
battering rams and a battered castle, " bellicoso impetu frac- 
tum\" 




' This historical sketch is gathered from the annexed copy of an old 
French narrative. See also Appendix, art. B., for a Latin version of the 
same. 



1 



[Facsimile of a copy in 1573.] 



TduU hiftoria Scfi'dtdimsu 

iiuvcmmi ({e-3^rtic licstohra-mcmo-- 
rutt^Cjierfu mJlotiiUtrriodc 
m Com Piratic gvTui^a'uUcm Jikronmi 
SUmnclfii a icoj^dcCo ^ '3ertit cashi 

repetittoncm cmtificns 



^afiula fjtffortca Ct fitietrigna Hieronimi de Bertie hie supra 

memorati, reperta in Monasterio de in Comitatu Cancise 

eiusdem Hieronimi Stemmatis a Leopaldo de Bertie castri 
Doveriee Constabulario tempore Edelredi regis ante Conquestum 
Angliae, altiorem repetitionem continens 



Q^rc mhejot^ cut nov^^^iett 

-^'.^^V . . ^ .-,.,.., 







TABULA HISTORICA HIERONIMI DE BERTIE, 



XIX 



^Xt aOit fOlt au nom t»e IBitU qui a fait le ciel et 
la terre ainsy soit il. 



He totu tJe ce monaftere a lentrroit tie la Bise a este faict 

edifier par Jherosme de Bertie a ses propres despens Lequel 
gist et et inhume en la Chappelle ou sont mises ses armoires a la 
Columne Scavoir est Trois moutons belliques et ung chasteau 
abbatu. Sur quoy fault noter que ces ancestres et predecesseurs 
ont iste franck Barons en Bertieland qui est es parties du Prussie 
Lesquell:^ ont assali cest Isle ensemble les Saxonnois. Entre 
lesquel^ vng nomme Lupoldus de Bertie fut Connestable du 
Chasteau de Douure es tenps de Edelredus Roy de Angleterre. 
Lequell en oultre avoit vng Chasteau et ville nomee Bertiesteit 
pres de Maideston en ceste Conte de Kent. Car steit en Ian- 
gage Saxonois vault autant come ville ou cite, et iusques a ce 
iourdhuy demeure encores vng village appelle Bertiesteit vul- 
gairement Ce Lupoldus plaidoya longuement auec les moynes 
Augustins de Canterberie pour cause des decimes de quelques 
terres a luy apartinantes Lesquelles terres come ainsy soit que 
lesdict:^ moynes par force avec compagnies de gendarmes en 
equipage ont essaye de les prendre et oster A iceulx a resiste 
le fil^ aisne de Lupoldus le quel a este tue en icelle iournee oU 

esmeute 

b2 



TABULA HISTORICA HIERONIMI BE BERTIE. XXI 



De cest homicide s'est granclement plaint de diet Lupoldus 
pere au Roy Edelredus mais en vain, Car vng Elphegus archi- 
uesque de Canturberie av^oit fleschi et atire le coeur du Roy aiix 
moynes de quoy Lupoldus a este griefuement marry tellement 
que par tout^ moyens il a solicite Suenus Roy de Daneraarc 
dassaillir et invader le Royaulme et expulser le Roy luy promet- 
tant donner facile acces et passage Suenus y consent et accord, 
Soudain il y va avec grande compagnie de navires divisee en 
deux dont lune assault les Northumberlandois lautre le pais 
de Kent Bien tost soy presente Lupoldus lequel adioustant 
ses Compagnies avec celles de Suenus assiegent Canturberie 
laquelle gaignee amenent larcheuesque captif et en pugnition 
de vengeance du fil^ de Lupoldus tue changeant I'ordre de 
Decimes (o cause grande) ils tuent les moynes par nombre de 
neuf en neuf pardonnans au dixiesme, Et par tel moyen pres- 
soint le Roy le quel fut contraivet de se retirer en Normendie 
et quiter le Royaulme a son enemy Ces choses ont este faicts 
Ian du Signeur, 1014. En oultre mort le diet Suenus voicy 
Edelredus retourne et poursuit en toute crvaultes les Danois 
en sorte que au contraire alors Burbachius de Bertie suel hoier 
et survivant de Bertie filt^ de Lupoldus consentent au faict du 
pere soy retire a la court de Robert Roy des ffrancoys duquel 
il fut receu fort honorablement et avoier espouse vne femme de 
ffrance pensa la faire sa residence il demeura la et sa posterite 
iusques a Ian du Seigneur, 1154. Au quel temps vng Phillippe 
de Bertie de la mesne famille est arriue en ce pays avec Henry 
second de ce nom Roy de Angleterre. Lequel par sa grande 
dexterite et prouesse de Battailler auec la grace du prince a 
recouuert son patrimonie en Bertiesteit, Ce Phillippe engendre 
Martin. Martin : Robert : Robert Guillamme Guillamme Ed- 



* ' 
















a 



CUA. 



TABULA HISTORICA HIERONIMI DE BERTIE. 



XXlll 



ward Edovard le susdict Jherosme le quel vivoit au temps de 
Henry cinquiesme a Bertiesteit Or aduint que vng moyne vng 
dimenche de Karesme preschoit la a vne eglise voisine lequel 
invehissciet grandement centre ceux qui haiont lestat des moines 
et centre les contempteurs diceulx et vint a racompter ce de- 
testable meurtre iadis perpetre es personnes des moynes de Can- 
terberie et la iuste pugnition et vengeance de Dieu centre tel^ 
homicides et la estoit present le diet Jherosme lequel de sa 
nature estoit enclin a courroux et furieus a la fin du sermon il se 
rue sur le moyne et le eust martirise se il ne eust este empesche 
de ceulx qui estoient present:^ Le cas a este raporte a L'arch- 
eusque Jherosme est excomunie estant excomunie ne pent 
estre absout ne par prieres ne pour argent, car est accuse come 
Soville du forfaict de ces Ancestres II est contrainct de aller a 
Romme la ou il a este absoub^ avec telles iniunctions Scavoir 
est que estant de retour au pays vng iour de feste en ung 
dimenche apres avoir ouy la messe publiquement au Monastere 
de Cantorberie et auoier demande misericorde premierement a 
Larcheuesque et apres aux moynes et ayant confesse ses peches 
quil^ soit absoub| et benit, et apres quil recoipue le corps du 
Seigneur et quil ne mange chair iusque a ce que toultes ses 
choses soint accomplies En oultre pour les fruict^ dignes de 
penitence, quil despende deux mille escus dor aus sainct^ mo- 
nasteres pour son ame et de ces ancestres et pourtant oultre tous 
Ces autres biens faict^ il a augmente ce temple dung coste tout 
neuf Et iacoit et par ces despences ses Richesses fussent toutes 
consumees il cest acquis et assemble baucoup plus excellentes 
Richesses au Royaulme celeste A I'ame du quel Dieu face 



mercy . 



1 Lansdowne MS. 205, f. 72. 



■*— i^ 




THE ABSOLUTION. 



SUCCESSION. 



XXV 



To this Jerome de Bertie succeeded his son and heir by name, 
Robert de Bertie ^ '* Lord of Bersted ;" 



M^ 







who was succeeded by his son, Robert de Bertie, "Lord of 
Bersted;" 




^ See Rawlinson's MSS., B. 73, in the Bodleian, who designates six suc- 

c 



XXVI 



SUCCESSION. 



who was succeeded by his son, William de Bertie (married Ehz- 
abeth, daughter of Thomas Pepper ^) ; 




who was succeeded by his son, Thomas de Bertie^. 



cessive generations from Robert, grandson of Philip, to Robert, grandfather 
of Thomas, as Lords of Bertiesteit. 

' " EHzabeth, fil. Thos. Pep." No. 96 in Sir Thomas PhilUp's Cata- 
logue, three volumes of pedigrees, from deeds, f. ch. 3, 17j blue morocco, 
p. 149, marked Y. on the back. Arms, " On a fess gules, 3 broad crosses 
pates or, between 3 bores heads erect, erased, gules." 

2 " The visitations made under the early commissioners are in many 
instances, in narrative and in their commencement, meagre in detail ; some- 
times containing little more than notes of arms of the gentry, and the 
founders and priors of monasteries, and seldom exhibiting more than the 
lineal descending line of the family ; subsequently they assume a more 
important form, affording full and accurate statements of pedigree, and sup- 
plying collateral as well as lineal descents." — Grimaldi, p. 254. 



\ 



) '■ 



V I 



SUCCESSION. 



XXVll 




" The arms ' and crest of Thomas Bertie, of Bersted, in the 
county e of Kent, gentillman," living temp. Henry the Seventh 
and Edward the Sixth, as they appear in a grant from Thomas 
Hawley, Clarencieux, who, designating him " of Berested, in 

^ Extracted from a copy of the docquet of the grant from Thos. Hawley, 
Clarencieux in the College of Arms. — See Appendix, art. C. Cook (^Claren- 
cieux in 1675) remarks, in his grant of arms to the Archer family, alias 
de Boys, that " to ancient arms there commonly belongeth no crest." 

c2 



XXVIU 



GOVERNORSHIP OF 



Kente, and at this presente tyme Captayne of Hurst Castle for 
y® King's Ma*^%" certifies himself to be plainly advertised and 
informed, " not alonly by common renowne, but also by the re- 
port and witnesse of dyvers, (worthy to be taken of word and 
credence,) that the said Thomas Bertie is descended of an house 
undefamed, and hath of long tyme used himself in feates of arms 
and good works ; so that he is well worthy to be in all places of 
honour admitted, nombred, and taken in the company of other 
nobles," &c. &c/ 




[Hurst Castle.] 



^ The science of heraldry was formerly in much higher repute than it is 
at present ; and was even hallowed by being made subservient to religious 
observances. The custom, for instance, of consigning the hatchment or 
achievement of a deceased person to the church, was originally meant as 
an acknowledgment to that Almighty power, who had so long permitted its 
use to the bearer. See Hook's Dictionary of the Bible. 



HURST CASTLE. 



XXIX 



Hurst Castle * stands at the extremity of a neck of land in 
Hampshire, which runs a mile and a half into the sea, and 
thence affords the shortest passage to the Isle of Wight ^. It 
was one of those places of defence on the coast which engaged 
much of the attention of Henry the Eighth ^, at that period of 
his reign when he considered the probability of an invasion from 
France ; and in later times became notorious as the last prison 
of the unfortunate Charles the First, previous to his removal to 
London, for the trial which was followed by his condemnation. 
The southern coast of England is of course the most exposed to 
the incursions of her continental neighbours ; and the days of the 
Field of the Cloth of Gold, and of bright chivalrous doings 
during the amity between the kings of England and France, 
were but for a short space, and were followed not only by 



^ Hurst Castle is in the parish of Hordle. " Here is always a garrison, 
commanded in chief by a governor." — England's Gazetteer. 

2 Warner's Hampshire. 

3 Account of sums expended for " Fortifications and buyldinges for the 
warre within the realme of England, with the wages of the same ; betwene 
the furste of March, anno xxx™o Henrici Octavi, and Michaelmas, anno vi^o 
Edwardi Sexti : 

'In the said late 
Kiages time, for 
three years at } 793 17 
£264 12s. 6d 
per annum . . . , 



Wages 

and 

entertain 

ments 

of 



The Castell 

called 

Hurste : 



viz^ 



£. 



s. d. 
6 



£. s. d. 
>2381 12 6 



'v>_ 



In the time of our 
Soveraigne Lord 
the Kinge, forf^l^^^ 15 
six years, at like 
rate 



State Paper Office. 



■M^to 



XXX 



GOVERNOR OF HURST CASTLE. 



jealousies, complaints, and threatenings, but by actual invasions 
and engagements. So early as the third year of Henry the 
Eighth, he began to make preparations, both by sea and land, 
for a war with France ; and in the following year, the assembled 
Parliament came to the conclusion that such a step was neces- 
sary. It is obvious that the defence of the coast would be a pri- 
mary object, and the places of strength thus newly erected were 
entrusted to individuals of established reputation, and in whose 
fidelity and circumspection the King could place the strictest re- 
liance. Thomas Bertie was the first governor 
of Hurst Castle \ He married the daughter 
of Say ^ of the county of Salop, and had two 
sons ^ Richard, his heir, and Thomas : the 



[The Say Arms.] 



eventful life of the former will be presently 
recorded, ranking as the first of The Five 
Generations. 



1 Warner. See also Appendix, art. D., for the document which registers 
his payment as Governor. 

2 The family of Say sometimes bore quai'terly, or and gules with a bor- 
dure vairee, evidently in allusion to theu* old coat. 

s Dugdale's Baronage. 



PROOFS. XXXI 



BERSTED. 

a chapter of l^voofs antr Horalifies. 

To those who may have given themselves the trouble to peruse 
the foregoing narrative of the strifes and reconciliations of bygone 
days, these questions may perhaps present themselves : namely, 
are there any remaining records of the connexion of Bersted, in 
early days, with those from whom it is said to derive its name ? 
and in what condition do we find it at the present moment ? In 
answer to the first interrogatory, there does exist distinct docu- 
mentary evidence of the connexion of the Berties with it in 
abode and property, from the time of Edward the First ^ (for we 
find their signatures attached to deeds of the period) to that of 
Edward the Sixth ; and to the second, a short description will 
furnish our reply. 

In the reign of Edward the Third, a tax was levied in Eng- 
land, known by the name of the " vicesima," being the twentieth 
portion of the value of all moveable goods. In the hundred 
of Eyhorne, in which Bersted^ was and is situate, and in the 
divisions and parishes adjoining to, or forming part of it, under 
the heads of Grove and Lenham, the Berties, designated as De 
Berghstede, Bertegh, or De Berteye, occur as contributing their 
share, and their names still exist in the Parliamentary rolls 

^ See Appendix, art. E., part i. 

2 Bersted is frequently spelt Berghsted and Berested in old writings and 
wills. 



sae 



XXXll 



INDENTURE. 



of the years in which the impost was exacted. Again, when in 
the sixth and latter years of Edward the Third, his expensive 
wars, or other necessities, raised it to a fifteenth part on those 
who did not inhabit towns and boroughs, and yet higher (to 
a tenth) on those who did, we find the same Berteghes, or Ber- 
teys, enrolled amongst those who were called upon to pay \ 

The next corroboration of their connexion with the neigh- 
bourhood, is found in an indenture of the 12th of June, twenty- 
sixth of Henry the Sixth, dated Otham, (a parish adjoining 
Bersted,) by which a certain Thomas and Richard Berteghe, 
predecessors of those who, under the same names, appear in 
later times in this narrative, receive on lease from John Pympe, 
the manor of Otham, with all lands, rents, court services, &c. 
appertaining thereto^, saving the wood called "Le Covert." 

A few years later, a very interesting document comes to our 
assistance, in the shape of a roll belonging to the Fraternity of 
Corpus Christi, in Maidstone, and bearing date 1481. This fra- 
ternity, which appears to have consisted of a chaplain, and of lay 
brothers and sisters, was of a religious character, and connected 
with the Guilde of the municipal government of the town. It 
existed in the reign of Henry the Fourth, and continued till the 
dissolution, temp. Henry the Eighth. The hall, in which the 
members of the society met once a year on Corpus Christi day, 
is still standing ; it belongs to the Corporation, and is now used 
as a grammar school. They also possessed a chaplain's house ; 

* See Vieesima Roll, Appendix, art. E., part ii., for an extract from the Par- 
liamentary Rolls of Edward the Third. Amongst others who contributed to 
this tax, appears the name of Roger de Northwode, whose grandfather was 
Sheriff of Kent in the time of Edward the First, and who himself had sum- 
mons to Parliament, temp. Edward the Third. 

2 See Appendix, art. F., for the indenture. 



j^ 



and each individual annually contributed money, wheat, flour, 
bread, rabbits, &c. ; amongst such contributors, who were all 
inhabitants of Maidstone or its neighbourhood, and of whom many 
were persons of consideration \ the name of John Bertey is en- 
rolled, who seems to have been residing at Bersted ^. The large 
hall in which their yearly festival was held, was on that day pre- 
pared for the reception of the members of the fraternity. The 
morning was devoted to religious exercises, when mass and 
dirge were sung for the repose of the souls of the departed bro- 
thers and sisters of the order. The evening was dedicated to a 
feast in honour of the friendly bond which united them, and 
which they had thus met to celebrate \ 

The channel of evidence is now continued by Hasted, in his 
History of Kent, who affords a strong proof of the possession of 
Bertiesteit by the Berties, mentioning a rent-roll (existing in his 
time) with their names, as holding it in the reign of Henry the 
Seventh ; and in the year 1485 we find a payment to the Priory 
of Leeds " de Rob*° Bertie, p. firma rectorie de Barsted, 
£4 135.4^."' 

In the reign of the same sovereign, a. d. 1501, Robert Berty, 
of the parish of Bersted, makes a will, desiring that his body 
may be buried in the cemetery of the parochial church of Ber- 
sted, to the repairs of which sacred edifice he leaves a certain 
sum, as well as small ones for other religious purposes. He then 

1 As, for instance, " Georgius Nevyll, Dns de Bergevene ;" " Dns Willius 
Bro^vn." 

2 See Appendix, art. I. 

2 See Appendix, art. G., for the roll of the fraternity, copied in 1843 from 

a deed in the corporation chest at Maidstone, by Mr. Clement Smythe. 

* See Appendix, art. H., for the extract from the rent-roll of the Priory 

of Leeds. 

d 



XXXIV 



DEEDS. 



Strictly entails his lands, hereditaments, &:c. in the parishes of 
Berghsted and Maydeston, to his two sons, Thomas and William, 
both being then under age \ 

By a rental of the tenants of the Archbishop of Canterbury in 
the years 1510 and 1511, it appears that the "heirs of Robert 
Berty"held lands, for which a rent or quit-rent was paid, of 
55. 4:d., in the borough of Stone, and parish of Maidstone ^. 

Our next proof is taken from the records of the Chapter-house, 
Westminster, in reference to one of the fines which were at the 
period often used for the purpose of family settlements, as well 
as sales. In this case Richard and Thomas Bertye, sons of 
Thomas Bertie, (probably the Captain of Hurst Castle,) pass a 
fine in 1546, in their father's life- time, of lands in Maidstone 
and Bersted ^, 

We come now to Thomas Bertie, who in his grant of arms is 
designated of Bersted, in 1550 ; and in 1580 we find the last 
allusion to our subject, in the shape of an acknowledgment at a 
court baron in Kent, (held by Saint Leger, Lord of the Manor of 
Leeds,) by Thomas Gritton, of his holding a certain messuage, 
''situate at Otriche, in Bersted," (burgo de Bersted,) "abutting 
to the lands of Robert Berty towards the west, and the king's 
highway towards the east*." 

And now for what Bersted was and is : the greater part of the 
parish of Bersted is at this time included in the manors of Leeds 



^ See Appendix, art. I., for an abstract of this will, extracted from the 
registry of the Archdeacon's Court of Canterbury. 

2 See Appendix, art. K., for the extract from the rental of the Archbishop 
of Canterbury. 

3 See Appendix, art. L,, for an extract from the calendar of fines kept in 
the Chapter-house, Westminster. 

* See Appendix, art. M. 



Castle and Thurnbam ; but in tbe days of Henry tbe Eigbtb, tbe 
manor of Bersted was separate and independent, and was then in 
tbe possession of tbe priory of Leeds, from wbom (at tbe dissolu- 
tion) it was wrested by tbat monarch, and conferred on tbe Dean 
and Chapter of Rochester. It does not appear, however, tbat tbe 
priory at this period had other possessions in Bersted, than tbe 
manor, glebe, parsonage, and tythes '. To this day there exist in 
Thurnbam, *'Berty lands," with "upper and lower Berty farms," 
thus retaining tbe name of their early settlers, after the lapse 
of nearly three centuries " ; notwithstanding the diminution of 
their possessions through tbe fine and munificence of Jerome, in 
the time of Henry tbe Fifth ; and although the chapel and mo- 
nastery, so richly endowed by him, are no longer to be found, 
(being probably swept away, with many others, by tbe rude 
spoilers of Henry the Eighth's reign,) tradition informs us tbat 
tbe church which existed in tbe priory of Leeds, in the adjoining 
parish to Bersted, was in magnificence equal to a cathedral. 

Tbe towers of tbe present church of Bersted are crowned 
with figures, which are said to have something of connexion 
with tbe family, either in name, or as armorial badges ^ ; and 

^ See Appendix, art. N., for Valor Ecclesiasticus, Hen. VIII. ; vid. Can- 
tuar. Com. Kane. p. 72. 

2 Sir Egerton Brydges, who, to borrow the words of the Gentleman's 
Magazine, (New Series, 1837, v. 8, p. 537,) " although a lover of genealogical 
antiquities, yet, with a view of enhancmg his merits as an original author, 
often affected to depreciate and contemn them," attempts to refute the de- 
rivation of the name of Bersted, by observing that people never gave names 
to places. The " smile," as he calls it, in speaking derisively of CoUins's 
labours, recoils upon himself. Su* E. Brydges is best known to the world 
as the disappointed aspirant to a peerage. See Beltz's Chandos Peerage 
Case. 

3 For collateral branches not mentioned here, see Appendix, art. 0. 

d2 



w./ 





there now exist deeds relating to Bersted and Thurnham, in the 
possession of Mr. Clement Smythe, of Maidstone, bearing date 
the tenth of James the First, and recognising what are now in 
common parlance styled " Berty lands," as legally bearing that 
appellation, and as transferred, by will, from a family of the 
name of Fisher to Haule : they afterwards came into the pos- 
session of the Cage family. 




L ~->-'^' -'jj^^^f-^^)^^^. 



[Bersted Church.] 



" ' The bears of Bersted^ ' is a common idiom in the weold of 
Kent, where this interesting church is situate. For many miles 

1 The figures before mentioned as crowning the towers of the church. 
The date of the church is supposed to be circa 1 300. One of the bells (of 
the 15th century) bears this inscription: "Vox Augustinse sonet in aure 
die." 



OF THE CHURCH. XXXVll 



along the valley, the tower, with the broken lines of the battle- 
ments, and the quaint figures on the angles, stands prominently 
forward ; and, on a nearer approach, an almost perfect symmetry 
of proportion shows itself in the arrangement of the building, 
which, with the dark grey unbroken mass of stone and tiles, with 
the relief of the luxuriant ivy on the tower, forms quite a picture 
of what a village church should be. 

" There are no particular monuments in the churchyard. Ad- 
joining the church is one of the old timber houses so common in 
this part of Kent, much decayed, but exceedingly picturesque. 
The village of Bersted clusters round the green ; and if a little 
more good taste be wanting in some of the more modern dwellings, 
we can refresh both mind and body, with the ideal and the reality, 
in the quiet parlour of the village ale-house, standing on an angle 
of the green, with its inviting seats within a deeply-ballustred 
porch and widely-latticed front ; the civil attention offered, and 
a mug of good ale, conjuring up one of honest Isaac's pleasant 
hostelries^" 



Description taken on the spot in 1845. 



xxxviu 



FRAGMENT. 



THE BERTIES OF BERTIESTEIT. 



^ Jf ragment. 



The morning gale just came and went, 
And bright the billows curled, 

When gaily on the shores of Kent 
A snow-white sail unfurled. 

Fresh might you feel the breezes spring. 

As o'er the ocean blue, 
Like a fair bird, with glistening wing, 

Across the surge it flew. 

While many a bounding bosom gay 

Left grief and care behind. 
And laughed to catch the feathery spray, 

Dashed by the sportive wind. 



One form alone, of loftier note, 
Wrapped in a palmer's weed. 

Seemed, in a corner of the boat. 
On bitter thoughts to feed. 



For him, nor plaintive song had charms, 

Nor voice of merry jest ; 
Apart he sate, with folded arms. 

Or crossed upon his breast. 

But ever, if a hasty spark 

Flashed from his keen dark eye, 

Who closely watched him might remark 
A deep heartbroken sigh ; 

And sunken were his eyes, and grey 
The clustering locks that shade 

A furrowed cheek, that seemed to say, 
" These wrinkles grief hath made ; 

" Heart- withering grief, that will not know 

The softening touch of time. 
And wakes but to a deeper woe, 

With every change of clime." 

* * *• * 



* * * * 

But now a shadow, green and dim. 
Spread o'er the waters blue, 

And deeper dipped the vessel's brim, 
As like a bird it flew. 



xl 



FRAGMENT. 



The wild winds whistled in the shrouds, 
The sea rose rough and high, 

The lightning from the angry clouds 
Might blind an eagle's eye. 

Then all that light and laughing crew, 

So careless in their mirth. 
Had given their fine broad lands to view 

One rood of solid earth. 

Then only to that pilgrim pale 

A hopeful eye they raised, 
For he alone, amid the gale. 

Sate firm and unamazed. 

But when the trembling mate let go 

The helm in wild despair, 
As nearer grew the rock of woe, 

More dark the thickening air ; 

Then, like a cumbering slough, he cast 

Aside his palmer's weed, 
And stout he rose amid the blast, 

To meet that fearful need. 



His was an eye to look on death, 
Nor vail its beaming crest ; 

And his the calm unfluttered breath, 
Should heave a warrior's chest. 




And if across his brow severe, 
Deep shades of awe might flit, 

A throne it seemed, where craven fear 
Was never wont to sit. 



Still as our dangerous race we drove, 
He steered with steady hand, 

f 

Till safe within a sheltered cove, 
O'erjoyed, we reach the land. 



* 



* 



* 



* 



Come teach us now, thou kind old man, 
Our prayer and hymns to raise. 

For sweet to such as thou the strain 
Of thankful love and praise. 

Aside he shrank with shuddering brow, 
All awe-struck, from the task, 

And mournfully he murmured low, 
" Ye know not what ye ask. 



"Lift, lift to heaven your solemn voice. 
Bend low the thankful knee ; 

Ye in its mercy may rejoice. 
And oh ! remember me. 



•^ 




" But I — my very prayer is sin ; 

The Church hath passed her ban, 
And doomed me, till her grace I win, 

A lorn and outcast man. 

" The tinkling clear of matin bell. 
The soothing vesper chime, 

To my sick heart, of sorrow tell. 
Of penance, and of crime. 

" I linger by the churchyard gate, 

I walk my languid round, 
Where once I swelled, with heart elate. 

The anthem's silver sound. 

" No grace, through sacred mystery. 

Supports my spirit frail ; 
I may not bend the adoring knee 

Before the holy rail !" 



* 



* 



* 



* 



* 



THE pilgrim's TALE. xllH 



THE PILGRIM'S TALE. 

'' When once, in yonder pleasant land ^ 

In dark and evil days, 
Men lived but by their red right hand, 

And violence was praise ; 

" When holy Church alone had power 

The rugged breast to calm. 
Diffusing, in its wildest hour. 

Religion's sacred balm ; 

" And e'en her gentle- lessons, true 

From age to following age, 
Caught something of a sterner hue, 

Opposed to heathen rage. 

" In those dark times dispute arose 

On lands my fathers swayed. 
And Austin's monks they dared oppose, 

And holy tithes evade. 

" Each by the arm of earthly might 

Upheld the strife begun. 
And seizing what they deemed their right, 

They slew my father's son. 

1 England, 
e 2 



xliv 



THE PILGRIM S 



" The father's heart, the father's pride, 
With anguish saw him bleed, 

And, kneeling to the King, he cried 
For vengeance on the deed. 

'* The King refused — he might not brave 
The offended Church's laws. 

But to her mitred ruler gave 
Sole judgment on the cause. 

" And ^Iphage, who the station filled. 

Denied a forfeit life 
For blood in hasty quarrel spilled. 

In an unholy strife. 

" It might be (God forbid that I, 

A sinful son of dust, 
Arraign whom He had placed on high, 

In thrones of sacred trust) 

" Strict justice, — yet with evil fraught 

To him and merry Kent ; 
For bitter was the father's thought. 

As from the King he went. 



" He happened at the time to hold 
A place of trust and power. 

As Constable and Warden bold 
Of Dover's ancient tower. 



TALE. 



xlv 



" And in that hour of agony, 

Of burning rage and pain, 
Forgetting every Christian tie, 

He called upon the Dane. 

" He called, and war and woe ensued- 
The Dane, who hovered nigh, 

As hungry vulture yearns for food, 
Swooped at his deadly cry ! 



* 



* 



* 



* 



" They mowed the monks as reapers' scythe 

Cuts down the golden grain ; 
The tenth they spared — a dreadful tithe ! 

Memorial of his pain. 



* 



* 



* 



* 



" Seven months in ' wan captivity ' 
The holy ^Iphage pined ; 

Chains could not dim the eagle eye, 
Nor quench the glowing mind. 



xlvi 



THE PILGRIM S 



" And when, before the eternal throne 

A bright imwasting lamp, 
High heaven would crown him for its own, 

They dragged him to their camp. 

*' ' Gold, Bishop, give us gold,' they cried \ 
' If thou an hour wouldst live ;' 

He answered, with a hermit's pride, 
' I have no gold to give ; 



(( ( 



Nor will I tempt my hapless King 
To swerve from honour's laws ; 
Nor Christian substance will I bring, 
To nourish pagan jaws.' 



* 



* 



* 



^ They offered to release him for a moderate ransom, if he would promise 
to advise Ethelred to give them large sums of money as a largess. " I have 
no money," he answered, "nor will I advise the King to dishonour himself." 
He refused from his brethren the means of ransom ; declaring that he 
" would not provide Christian flesh for pagan teeth, by robbing his poor 
countrymen to enrich their enemies." The barbarians, inflamed by intoxica- 
tion, and impatient of further delay, draggmg him before a sort of military 
council, cried out, "Gold, Bishop, gold!" Findmg him unshaken, they 
assailed him with bones, horns, and jaws, the remains of their feast. He feU 
to the ground half-dead, and received a mortal wound from a freebooter 
whom he had himself baptized. —Mackintosh's History of England, p. 58. 



" His sacred form, in cruel jest, 
With horns, and jaws, and bones. 

The remnant of their barbarous feast, 
They dashed against the stones. 

" And one, upon whose brow he poured 

The living stream of life, 
In the thrice Holy Name adored, 

Drank his, with thirsty knife ^ 

" Dire and accursed the deed ; — nor long 
Did Heaven's stern vengeance sleep ; 

Soon were we forced the cruel wrong 
In tears of blood to weep. 

" Nor we alone — o'er all the land. 

As water, gore was shed, 
In wrath, for sacrilegious hand 

Laid on that saintly head. 

" For us reserved a lingering doom, — 

Compelled in haste to flee, 
And trembling seek a stranger's home, 

Across the misty sea. 



^ Miluer, in his History of Winchester, gives a different colouring to the 
act, describing it as done out of a rude mercy, to put an end to his suffer- 
ings. 




" We learned ' how salt another's bread \' 
How sad their dawning prime, 

How languid to the weary tread, 
'The strangers' stair to climb.' 



* 



* 



* 



* 



* 



* 



* 



" Yet there a gentle race we grew, 
In fields of pleasant France, 

In battle brave, in council true, 
And fairest in the dance. 



"There in Valdarno's halls, of yore 
By bright Gualdrada ^ graced ; 

Imperial pride hath bowed before 
Our lovely and our chaste. 



^ Because moistened with tears ? The hnes are borrowed from Dante's 
beautiful Lament over his own banishment : 

" Tu proverai si come sa di sale, 
Lo pane altrui, e com' e duro calle 
Lo scendere, e '1 salir per 1' altrui scale." 
2 Gualdrada, the beautiful daughter of Bellincion Berti, (" I'alto Bellin- 
cione " of Dante,) whose spirited and modest behaviour so won the esteem 
of the Emperor Otho, that bestowing her in marriage on Guido, one of his 
barons, (from whom descended the family of the Conti Guidi,) he endowed 
her with all Casentino, and part of La Romagna. She is commemorated by 
Dante as *^ La buona Gvialdrada." 



TALE. xlix 



" And many a goodly fief in dower 

Imperial virtue gave, 
Bestowing (noblest gift of power) 

The spotless on the brave. 



« * 



'* In gay Provence's golden court, 

On pleasure's fairie ground. 
Where love, and song, and joyous sport, 

Pursued their minstrel round, — 

" Still were we strangers — still we sighed. 

When dreams were bright and fair, 
For souls unchained, and free to glide 
Into our native air ; 
And the closed heart would turn away 
Indignant from their syren sway. 

" And our sad eye would track the glimmering beams, 

Like hope departed, of the dying day. 
Far off to where the northern moonlight gleams 
Over the glittering ivy's trembling spray. 
That clusters round our fathers' ruined walls. 
Showing with her cold rays their waste and blackened halls, 

f 



THE PILGRIM S 



" Like the pale sleep of death ! — ' O when,' we cried, 
' When will the hour of resurrection come?' 

And thus the strong impatience of our pride 
Cast a sick shadow o'er that balmy home. 



The whispering of the southern breeze 
That softly floated by. 
The fragrance of the orange-trees, 
The clear and sunny sky, 

*' Came o'er us with a sense of pain, 
That wore the weary breast ; — 

More dear to us, in mist and rain, 
Our island of the west. 

" We pined to meet the boisterous wind, 
Her bold white cliffs above. 

To cool that fever of the mind. 
Sad dower of exile's love ; 

" The love that to our fatherland 

With keen devotion clung. 
And loathed to learn, with accent bland. 

The phrase of southern tongue. 



" Nor these seductive climes alone 

Luxurious welcome gave. 
But spirits of a firmer tone. 

Braced by the northern wave \ 

^ Mention occurs in an old MS. of a Lordship of Berty, in Normandy, 
antecedent to the Conqueror : " Hay mo Dns de Thorigno Bertv et Creuly 



" (Nest of our Norman ^ sires of old,) 

On many a turret height, 
Upreared our banner's stately fold, 

Pledge of chivalric might. 

^ * ^ m 

^ ^ * * 

" Full many a change of state and place 

The lingering years beguile, 
Till one, the hero of our race. 

Achieved a monarch's smile. 

" ' A boon. Sir King!' he cried, and bent 

To earth his knightly knee, 
' My fathers' lands, in merry Kent, 

I crave my battle fee.' 

" And never plume more gaily danced, 

Nor merrier corselet rang. 
Than Phiiip Bertie's, when entranced. 

On kindred earth he sprang. 



comes Corbulensis." These imaginative comiexions being chiefly built on 
similarity of name, it will be seen that though the manuscript renders them 
extremely probable, they do not by any means rest upon the same authority 
as its own narrative. 
* Northmen. 

f2 -^ 



" And there, embalmed in holy ground, 

He sleeps a warrior's rest, 
His feet upon his couchant hound, 

The Cross upon his breast — 

" The saving Cross — to which his eye 

Bv faith habitual turned, 
Seen clear amid the battle-cry, 

When fierce the conflict burned ; 

" Which ever to his victor sword 
Sweet mercy's cause endeared. 

Whispering the all-persuasive word, 
' Now spare as thou art spared.' 

" Oft have I lingered by his tomb. 

Beneath the sacred choir, 
Till rapt beyond the enshadowing gloom, 

I loved him as my sire. 

" It was my favourite hiding-place, 

While yet a playful child, 
And when I kissed his placid face, 

I thought the marble smiled. 



" And there I learned, a lonely boy, 

To worship and admire. 
Till every thought and every joy, 

Clung to those souls of fire. 



TALE. liii 

*' They were my heart's companions, when 

They ranged from clime to clime ; 
Yea, e'en those fierce unholy men, 

In the dark evil time. 



* 



^ ^ * ^ 

" It chanced one day in Holy Lent, 
When men for sin should weep, 

A monk exhorted to repent, 

There, where my fathers sleep. 

" He told, — e'en now in distant time 
My soul for anguish bleeds, — 

He told us all their deadly crime, 
Their dark and dreadful deeds. 

" O sinful man ! T might have known 
Such words in kindness sent, 

To hallow all the mercies shown 
In that long banishment ; 

" But stung by the upbraiding look 
That points each harrowing word, 

With fierce ungoverned arm I struck 
The anointed of the Lord ! 



Hi 



THE PILGRIM S 



" And there, embalmed in holy ground, 

He sleeps a warrior's rest, 
His feet upon his couchant hound, 

The Cross upon his breast — 

" The saving Cross — to which his eye 

Bv faith habitual turned, 
Seen clear amid the battle-cry, 

When fierce the conflict burned ; 

" Which ever to his victor sword 
Sweet mercy's cause endeared. 

Whispering the all-persuasive word, 
' Now spare as thou art spared. ' 

" Oft have I lingered by his tomb. 

Beneath the sacred choir. 
Till rapt beyond the enshadowing gloom, 

I loved him as my sire. 

'* It was my favourite hiding-place. 

While yet a playful child, 
And when I kissed his placid face, 

I thought the marble smiled. 



" And there I learned, a lonely boy, 

To worship and admire. 
Till every thought and every joy, 

Clung to those souls of fire. 



\ 



^ 



TALE. liii 

" They were my heart's companions, when 

They ranged from clime to clime ; 
Yea, e'en those fierce unholy men, 

In the dark evil time. 



* 



<( 



It chanced one day in Holy Lent, 
When men for sin should weep, 
A monk exhorted to repent, 

There, where my fathers sleep. 

" He told,— -e'en now in distant time 
My soul for anguish bleeds, — 

He told us all their deadly crime, 
Their dark and dreadful deeds. 

" O sinful man ! T might have known 
Such words in kindness sent, 

To hallow all the mercies shown 
In that long banishment ; 

" But stung by the upbraiding look 
That points each harrowing word, 

With fierce ungoverned arm I struck 
The anointed of the Lord! 



r/ 




" From the high altar where he stood 

Stern in his Master's sway, 
I dashed him in my heat of blood, 

And smote him as he lay ! 

*' Oh ! that my hand, in battle lost, 
Had dropped a foeman's scorn, 

Nor thus incurred the awful cost 
'Twill bear at Judgment morn ! 

" Would it had withered from the womb, 

Or ere it learned to twine 
The ivy round my fathers' tomb. 

And feel their deeds were mine ! 



" But oh, if ever mental pain 
From Heaven may mercy win, 

Or vigil stern, or fast, obtain 
Relief from deadly sin ; 

'' How many a night, whilst others slept, 

In cold and hunger sore, 
These weary eyes have watched and wept. 

Till they could weep no more ! 

" And now to Rome, from merry Kent, 

A pilgrim pale, I go, 
So Holy Church may yet relent. 

And cleanse me from my woe." 

^ ^ *I? ^ 

* * * * 



RETURN OF THE PENITENT. Iv 



THE RETURN OF THE PENITENT. 



The muffled bells in Bersted tower 

Once more are softly ringing, 
And in each patient breast the flower 

Of sweet calm hope is springing ; 

The weeping grandame dons her curch, 

To head her eager race, 
For on this day doth Holy Church 

Her penitent embrace. 

But there is one still left in Bersted Hall, 
Hid in her silent solitude apart. 
Who only to the Almighty Lord of all 
Pours the rich treasures of her thankful heart ; 

Low on her knees before the holy Cross, 

Sincere in calm devotedness, she vows 

To count all worldly riches but as dross, 

Restored her erring spouse ; — 
And sure that vow is registered in heaven, 
Which deigns to accept alone what the true heart hath given. 



Ivi 



RETURN OF 



Two thousand crowns of precious gold, 

In penance for his pride, 
Hath Jerome Bertie freely told, 

With many a gift beside ; 

Pure offerings of a loyal heart, 
Whose depth of contrite love 

Yearns of its fulness to impart, 
And treasure hope above. 

And if the oak's green glory falls 
Ere time its strength decay ; 

If the broad lands and feudal halls 
To strangers waste away ; 

If walls, with many a cleft and stain, 

Yet cherished to the last, 
Alone in haunted fields remain, 

Dear relics of the past ; 



Where comfort in some reverend cell, 
With porch of ivied green. 

Abides in peace, the tale to tell 
Of pomp that once hath been. 

Yet will such gifts before His throne 

Arise on angel wings. 
Who seals that sacrifice his own. 

The unwavering spirit brings. 



THE PENITENT. Ivii 



Yet, when at last his limbs shall rest 

Beneath the holy sod, 
Light lie the turf upon his breast, 

His soul ascend to God ; 

While many a pillar, niche, and wall, 

In that old abbey tell. 
If aught remind us of his fall, 

How few repent so well. 

Eons #an t^e JBate^ttee floun#, 
Wiitlt iivantbt^ green anlr fair; 

^'ov ^ivon^tv titan titt fiatterittjjn-am, 
JBenance anlr patient ^pra^er. 



Yes, Pride may teach pale Penance hath no power 

To cleanse the soul from blot of sinful blame ; 
So thought not Jerome, in that long-sought hour, 

When to her gracious discipline he came ; 
When mild humility and bitter shame 

Had to his lips her mingled chalice brought, 
Meekly he drank, to quench his fever flame. 

And found the balm austere with healing fraught. 

True to his ear, her tones of blended strain. 
As prostrate in the dust he lowly lay. 

Linking his thoughts, by faith's unwinding chain. 
To sympathies of heaven, in bright array ; 



As angels weep o'er lapse of sinful clay, 
And joy when erring souls no longer roam ; 

So white-robed Heralds, on that happy day, 
On earth received him to his father's home. 

And hark ! sweet echo of the strains on high 

Strikes out with gladsome peal the choral chime ; 
And lo ! the close-barred gates wide open fly. 

Disclosing to his view their depths sublime. 
His chastened view, that dares not venture nigh, 

Weighed down in anguish by remorseful grief. 
Till words of peace, still whisperings from the sky. 

Breathe o'er his contrite soul their calm relief. 

Words of unfailing love, whose mild behest 

Is precious usury for each bitter tear. 
With welcome, as to long-expected guest, 

Like showers on wool, ye trickle on his ear ! 
" Come unto me, thou laden and opprest, 

Take my light yoke, mine easy burden bear. 
Come unto me, and I will give thee rest ; 

The peace of heaven awaits thee — enter here." 



Oh happy they, whose torches, clear and bright. 
For ever burn around that holiest shrine ; 

But we, with flickering and uncertain light. 
Dare not approach those precincts all divine : 

Yet trembling, linger by the open door, 

Like swallow hovering round her sacred nest, 



THE PENITENT. lix 



Eager to catch the notes when all is o'er, 

And ** pardon's seal " upon his brow imprest, 

Our wave-tost wanderer hath reached the shore, 
Safe in the haven of the Church's breast. 

O then how softly over Jerome's soul, 

That long had drooped beneath its sense of sin, 
The blessed dews of absolution stole, 

Restoring all the withered hope within ; 
And as he bowed before the holy rail, 

And to his lips the seed of life he prest, 
What words can tell, where even thought would fail, 

The deep thanksgiving of his penitent breast ! 

Then, as the solemn anthem soar'd above. 

Borne to high heaven on wings of choral praise, 
How sweetly blend the springs of sacred love, 

With memory of those old long-cherished days ! 
Then to his soul the good, the bold, the free, 

Long since withdrawn from earth to paradise, 
Commingled with a nobler company. 

The loyal sons o^ future hope arise. 

• There, clustering round a martyr king, he sees 
The scions of his stock *, erect and true, 
'Mid scenes " at which the stoutest heart might freeze," 
Bold to achieve, and stedfast to endure ; 

^ His descendants, devoted, even to death, to the cause of Charles tlie 
Fh'st. 



Ix 



END OF THE FRAGMENT. 



With joy he hails, devoted from their birth, 
The eager victims of their gallant truth ^, 

And virgin souls that scarcely touched the earth, 
So purely perfect in their dawn of youth. 



Hcing mag tit |I9ate4ret flouri#, 
TOitjb hvantit^ grnn anlf tare; 

^nlf ^trtinjjer tjban tj^e fiattmng^ram, 
tSe tjbe ^aint^^ toaUJM ^raper^ 



^ The two sons of the Earl of Lindsey, who fell fighting for their King. 
2 The author acknowledges her debt to the contributor of these lines. 



v/ 



^! 




/>. C Antrim, delt 



O. ./. sculpt 



RICHARD BERTIE. 



(From a picture by Holbein, 1548.) 



To face page I.] 






THE FIVE GENERATIONS. 



RICHARD BERTIE. 

Richard Bertie, or Bertue, son of Thomas Bertye, captain of 
Hurst Castle, was born in the county of Southampton, a. d. 1,518, 
the tenth year of King Henry the Eighth, was entered (Christmas ' 
1533) at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, being then about 
sixteen years of age^ ; went out Bachelor of Arts, May 3, 1537, 
and afterwards obtained his fellowship as a Hampshire man, 
which he vacated on his marriage with Catherine, Duchess of 
Suffolk. It appears that in early life he was attached to Wri- 
othesley. Earl of Southampton, Chancellor of England^, who 
was removed from this office, in the first of King Edward the 
Sixth, on account of his being a rigorous Romanist^. It is pos- 
sible that the difference of their religious opinions may have ! 
been the occasion of their parting, as Bertie was decidedly 
attached to the Reformed Church. From various accounts it | 

^ See Appendix for a note taken from the archives of the College. Art. R. | 
2 Holinshed's Chronicles, p. 1142-3. ^ Fuller's Worthies. ' 

B 



HIS EDUCATION AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS. 



appears that he was an accomplished gentleman S well versed 
in the study of languages, being master of the French, Italian, 
and Latin tongues ; bold and shrewd in discourse, and quick at 
repartee. We may conclude, that it was through these accom- 
plishments and graces that he gained the affections and hand 
of one of the most distinguished ladies of the day, whether we 
consider her great descent, the princely fortune which she 
brought him, or, above all, the heroic courage and religious zeal, 
to which she and her husband had nearly fallen martyrs. 




WITH THE CREST 

OF 

THE UFFORDS, 

EARLS OF SUFFOLK, 

AS 

BORNE BY THE 

LORD WILLOUGHBY, 

TEMP. HEN. VIII. 



This Catherine, the daughter of William, the last Lord Wil- 
loughby de Eresby, who is described by Fuller to have been " a 
lady of a sharp wit, and sure hand to thrust it home and make it 

^ Churchyard's Translation of Meteranus, and Biographia Britannica, 
vol. ii. p. 280. 



pierce when she pleased," was born in 1520, and, being his 
only child, inherited his dignity and fortune. Her mother was 
Maria de Salines, or Saluces, and nearly related to Catherine of 
Arragon, to whom she had been maid of honour, having come 
with her to England on her marriage with Prince Arthur. She 
adhered to that Queen's cause with affectionate fidelity, when 
the caprices of Henry the Eighth deprived her of her lawful 
place and position. The descent of Lady Willoughby \ on the 
mother's side, caused Bishop Gardiner ^ in later days, to 
observe how grieved the King of Spain w^ould be to find, 
that of the two ladies of Spanish extraction in this country, 
namely. Queen Mary and this Lady Willoughby, only one still 
adhered to the Romish faith. On the death of her father. Lord 
Willoughby, a. d. 1526, the orphan heiress was entrusted to the 
guardianship of Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, and even- 
tually became his fourth wife. His third wife had been Mary^, 



* The descent of this lady from Gaston de Foix, and from the Kings of 
Arragon, is given in a MS. in the British Museum, No. 5805, f. 374, 375 ; 
but as there is some inaccuracy in another part of its statement, other 
authorities have been referred to, and through the research of an obhging 
friend, an account of her birth has been supplied, which, in the shape of a 
short table, will be found in the Appendix (see Art. S.). By Dugdale, and 
Collins (who follows m his steps) the lady is called Lady Mary Salines ; 
quaere, Saluces. 

2 Holmshed, p. 1142-.3. 

3 There is an engraving, by Vertue, of Charles Brandon and this princess, 
standing hand in hand, and on the sides are these words : 

" Cloth of gold, do not thou despise, 
Though thou be matched with cloth of frieze ; 
Cloth of frieze, be not thou too bold. 
Though thou be matched with cloth of gold." 

This verse has been misapplied to Richard Bertie and the Duchess of Suffolk. 

B 2 




Queen of France, the sister of Henry the Eighth ; and the rela- 
tionship of Catherine, through her mother, to Mary of England, 
has probably been the occasion of the confusion in the accounts 
of these two ladies, into which Rapin, amongst others, has 
fallen '. The lady, however, with whom this history has to do, 
was married at the early age of sixteen, and was left a widow, by 
the Duke of Suffolk, in 1545, with two sons, Henry and' 
Charles, who are said to have been of promising talent and 
disposition, especially the eldest. During her widowhood she 
appears to have resided chiefly at Grimsthorp, in Lincolnshire ; 
and the first mention of her intended alliance with Mr. Bertie is 
to be found in a letter written by her^ in 1548, to Mr. Cecil, 
afterwards the famous Lord Burleigh, but then, as she expresses 
it, " attendant upon my Lord Protector's Grace." 

The Duchess had very just cause to complain of the Protector's 
breach of promise in a matter that nearly concerned her, and 
must have been a considerable drain upon her finances, which, 
according to her own account, were not in the most flourishing/ 
state. She had been the friend of Katherine Parr, late the 
queen-dowager, and who having but narrowly escaped the violent 
death which had been the lot of two of her predecessors, and • 
having subsequently married (it must be owned, with indecent 



^ Rapin's eiTor is very glaring : he imagines Peregrine Bertie to be the 
son of Mary, Henry the Eighth's sister, and of Charles Brandon ; which is 
the more extraordinary mistake, as in that ease he would have been heir to 
the throne : supposing at least the will of Henry the Eighth to stand good, 
by which he set aside the descendants of his elder sister Margaret. Camden 
erroneously styles his mother Lady Willoughby, daughter of a Duchess of 
Suffolk. 

2 State Paper Office, Domestic Correspondence ; also another copy in the 
British Museum. 



KATHERINE PARR. 



haste,) the younger brother of the Protector, lost her life, in 1548, 
at the birth of an infant daughter, who was thus left to such care 
as her friends could bestow. The natural protector of this 
infant was, of course, her own uncle, the Duke of Somerset, ** 
after the execution of her father. Lord Seymour, of Sudely ; but 
it being his dying wish that she should be consigned to the guard- 
ianship of the Duchess of Suffolk, the burden seems to have 
been thrown entirely on that lady, with a promise, however, from 
the Protector, that a certain pension should be allotted for the 
infant's maintenance, which was withheld till the duchess could 
no longer support the charge. The poor little child seems to 
have been considered, in some sort, as a princess, and to have 
had, besides a "nourrice" and maids, a certain retinue about 
her, all of whom, as the duchess says, cried unto her for wages, 
" a voice mine ears may hardly bear, but my coffers much 
w^orse." She "entreats" Cecil to help her " at a pinch," and 
mentions Mr. Bertie as being likewise acquainted with the affair. 
Her expression is, "my lady ^ sent me word at Whitsuntide, by 
Bertue, that my lord's grace, at her suit, had granted certain 
nursery plate should be delivered with the child^," &c. We may 
well believe that the duchess did not, as she says, " cry before 
she was pricked;" for who, however attached, cotdd be ex- 
pected to defray such enormous charges ? As this lady, after 
her union with Mr. Bertie, occupies a very prominent situation 
in these memoirs, the traits of character exhibited in her own 
letters become of high value to her biographer, and cannot be 
regarded as out of place. In the year 1550^ we find her writing 



1 The Duchess of Somerset. 

2 See Appendix, for this letter, Art. T. 
^ State Paper Office, Domestic Letters. 



6 



THE PROTECTOR SOMERSET. 



to Mr. Secretary Cecil, on the subject of one of those early 
matrimonial engagements so much the fashion at that period, but 
which she appears to have viewed through the medium of 
common sense and feeling. The young persons in question were 
her son and the daughter of the Duke of Somerset, between 
whom it appears a marriage had been attempted to be ar- 
ranged. As her eldest child was only born in 1536, he could 
have numbered but fourteen years, and the intended bride was 
probably much younger. Whatever divisions had existed between 
the duchess and the Protector, she appears now to be completely 
reconciled with him, and speaks kindly and warmly of their 
friendship, although reluctant to cement it, or prove it to the 
world by engaging their children to each other, before they were 
old enough to judge for themselves : " no unadvised bonds," she 
writes, " between a boy and girl, can give such assurance of 
good will, as hath been tried already;" and she very feelingly 
adds, " I cannot tell what more unkindness one of us might show 
the other, or wherein we might work more wickedly, than to 
bring our children into so miserable a state, (as) not to choose by 
their own liking such as they must profess so strait a bond, and 
so great a love to, for ever." She professes much regard herself 
for the young creature, and seems to desire nothing better than a 
mutual attachment between them ; still she would not have them 
marry only through obedience to their parents ; and adds that 
in such a case, when they became conscious of the loss of their 
"free choice," neither of them would "think themselves so 
much bounden to the other, a fault sufficient to break the great- 
est love." She concludes : "if God do not mislike it, my son 
and his daughter shall much better like it, to make up the matter 
themselves ; there can no good agreement happen between them 



PROFICIENCY OF THE DUCHESs' SONS. 



that we shall mislike ; and if it should not happen well, there is 
neither they nor one of us shall blame another." Sentiments like 
these may be, we hope, less uncommon now, than in the six** 
teenth century. 

Alas ! the young heir, for whose establishment such pains were 
taken, was not destined to figure long in this sublunary world. 
He, and his brother, born in the year 1537, lived just long 
enough to leave behind the promise of a fair and gifted manhood.' 
Probably the example of such persons as Edward the Sixth and 
Lady Jane Grey, led to the developement of much youthful • 
talent, in a manner that seems now precocious. 

We hear of the early and remarkable proficiency of these sons 
of the duchess, in a rare and interesting account of them, pub- 
lished after their death, by their tutor, Wilson '. It appears from 
this, that they were distinguished by qualities and graces not 
often, as in their case, so beautifully shared between brothers of 
the same house. The calm and gentle and reflecting mind of 
the one, shone with redoubled lustre by the bold and martial' 
spirit of the other ; and although the portraits of both are in- 
teresting, the younger one (Charles) was especially remarkable 
for that loveliness of feature and countenance, so interesting in 
the dawn of youth. The elder (Henry) spent the years of in- 
fancy by the side of our young monarch, Edward the Sixth ; and 
not only in childish sports, but in the graver hours of study, was 
associated with his occupations and pursuits, sharing with him 
the advantages he derived from the instructions of his preceptor, 
Cheke. The Duchess, however, lest he should be neglected, 
appointed a person his especial tutor (probably this very Wilson, 

^ A distinguished man, afterwards Dean of Durham. 



8 



HER MATERNAL ANXIETY. 



as he is in the sequel so denominated), and afterwards insisted 
on placing him at Cambridge, where his brother, being entered at 
twelve, had been two years, although blamed by some for remov- 
ing him from the society of the young king, who, on his side, 
was most sorry to part with his companion. At this period, 
Martin Bucer was professor of theology at Cambridge ;■ and 
Henry, the young Duke of Suffolk, distinguished himself by an 
aptness for serious study far beyond his years ; both were re- 
markable for a proficiency in learning and disputation, which, 
since it was the fashion of the day, we must admire for its 
depth and spirit, without censuring its apparent incongruity 
wqth the timidity of youth. Their mother's anxiety for their 
improvement was so great, that it seems nothing short of being 
an eyewitness of their daily progress could satisfy her mind; 
and giving up every other object of interest for the one so 
near her heart, the widowed duchess followed her children to 
Cambridge, and taking up her abode in that city, had the 
satisfaction of viewing the hourly improvement of these che- 
rished sons. It is worthy of note, too, that she was not merely 
interested in their improvement in worldly science : she chiefly 
longed that they should possess that wisdom which makes " wise 
unto salvation." In her own studies with them this was her first 
aim. Their labour was not trifling ; even at meals the system 
of education continued, and either the one or the other read, or 
was read to, that no opportunity of gaining knowledge might be 
lost. On the occasion of the death of Bucer, they exerted them- 
selves to compose funeral orations to his memory \ At the 



z' 



^ The duchess had evidently, from some cause or other, a personal friend- 
ship for Bucer ; for in a letter in the State Paper Office, dated February 17, 
1550-1, we find her writing to Cecil, and begging his help or advice in the 



coronation of King Edward the Sixth, they had, it is said, been 
created Knights of the Bath ; but the same year and the same 
day saw the untimely end of both ; if they had thus been "lovely 
and pleasant in their lives," so "in their deaths they were not* 
divided." The fatal disease termed "the sweating sickness," 
which first made its appearance in this country in the reign of 
Henry the Seventh, and swept away such multitudes of every 
age and condition, destroyed at one blow these fair blossoms of 
a mother's hopes, and left the duchess childless as well as 
widowed. 

On the breaking out of the distemper at Cambridge, her sons, 
she being at the moment afflicted with illness, were removed, 
with a young friend and relation of the name of George Stanley, 
to a village (Kingston) distant about five miles, where, notwith- 
standing this precaution, the latter, in the space of a few hours, 
sickened and died. The sudden death of his young kinsman 
fell heavily on the heart of Henry Brandon ; who, with his bro- 
ther Charles, was immediately carried (apparently farther from 
the seat of danger) to Bugden^, the palace of the Bishop of Lin- 
coln. Here they were kindly received by their relative, the 
Lady Margaret Neville, who regarded them with maternal affec- 
tion, and with whom they supped that evening ; but grief 
weighed down the spirits of the elder brother especially, and, 
mournfully looking upon her, he said, " Where shall we sup 
to-morrow evening?" " With me, I trust," was her reply; " or 
at least with one equally well known to you." "No," he an- 

matter of conveying a letter for him (she does not mention to whom) ; and 

expresses a great anxiety that this should be done, on account of Master 

Bucer's sickness. — State Paper Office, Dom. Let., February 15, 1551. 

' This interesting old place has been recently destroyed. 

c 



swered, decidedly, " never shall we sup together again." And 
his words were sadly verified, for immediately after he was 
attacked by the malignant distemper, and died on the 16th of 
July, 1551. Charles, the younger, ill in a separate apart- 
ment (and not, as Mr. Lodge erroneously represents it, in the 
same bed), turned to his physician just after the sad event had 
taken place, with the remark of how painful it was to be 
bereaved of those we love: "Why say you so?" asked the 
physician. "My brother," answered he, "is dead." But his 
sorrow was of no long continuance : in a few hours their tem- 
porary separation was over. As the elder sank first, the other 
succeeded, only however for that short period, to those worldly 
honours and titles, which he also was soon to relinquish for the 



grave. 



The distraction of the poor mother on so sudden and complete 
a bereavement needs no description. On learning their removal, 
she had followed them to Bugden, where she hoped to embrace 
them in health ; but was overwhelmed with consternation when 
the eldest was suddenly smitten five hours after her arrival. In 
the first moment of confusion, the funeral of the brothers was 
conducted privately and without ceremony ; but in after days she 
paid those external respects to their memory, which, in her first 
agony, she omitted ^. 

We may here trace the Duchess's character in a new point 
of view, and consider her under the trying circumstances of a 
heavy affliction : her letter to Cecil on the subject is so resigned 
and humble that it must not be omitted. She writes from Grims- 



^ These interesting details are gathered from a book written by Wilson, 
called " Vita et obitus duorura Fratrum Hen. et Caroli Brandoni," now to 
be seen in the British Museum and the Bodleian Library. 



RESIGNATION OF THE DUCHESS. 1 1 



thorpe, September 1551 \ and thus expresses her feelings on the 
subject. 

" I give God thanks, good Master Cecil, for all his benefits 
which it hath pleased Him to heap upon me ; and truly I take 
this last (and to the first sight, most sharp and bitter) punish- 
ment not for the least of His benefits ; inasmuch, as I have never 
been so well taught by any other before to know His powder. His 
love, and mercy, my own weakness, and that wretched state that 
without Him I should endure here. And to ascertain you that 
I have received great comfort in Him, I would gladly do it by 
talk and sight of you ; but as I must confess myself no better 
than flesh, so I am not well able with quiet to behold my poor 
friends, without some part of those veyl drayes (vile dregs) of 
Adam, to seem sorry for that whereof I know I rather ought to 
rejoice. Yet, notwithstanding, I would not spare my sorrow so 
much but I would gladly endure it, w^ere it not for further 
causes that moveth me so to do-; which I leave unwritten at this 
time, meaning to fulfil your last request to-morrow by seven 
o'clock in the morning, and then, if it please you, you may use 
him that I send you, as if I stood by. So with many thanks 
for your lasting friendship, I betake you to Him that better can, 
and I trust, will, govern you to His glory and your best con- 
tentation. From Grimsthorpe, this present Monday. 
" Your poor but assured friend, 

" K. SUFFOULK." 

We will take our leave of these regretted children with the 
lines written on their early doom by Mr. Bertie, who afterwards 
married their mother, and who seems to be alluded to in the 

above letter. 

^ State Paper Office, Dom., Sept. 1551. 
c 2 



[Lines by Richard Bertie, Esq., on the deaths of Henry and 
Charles Brandon, Dukes of Suffolk, who died on the 16th of 
July, 1551; having but a few months before lamented by epi- 
taphs the death of Bucer.] 

RiCHARDUS BaRT-EUS. 

Qui modo Buceri defleruut carmine funus, 
Qui pueri, cauum ; canis hos nunc, puerisq' 
(Proh dolor) en prima flendos falcauit in herba, 
Parca nouei'ca bonis, et longo stamine dignis, 
Sed si non nobis, sibi satouixere, diuq' ; 
Nam bene uixerunt, et succubuere beati. 
Libantes musis, libantes hostia facti 
Oh sacri agnelli, coeli recubate coloni ^. 

Though not an actual translation, these lines may be thus 
cursorily rendered : 

Oh ye ! who lately struck the mournful chord 
Of funeral woe, and Bucer's loss deplored. 
Who shed the precious balm of youthful tears 
O'er him whose hoary head was crown'd with years, 
Are ye all silent now, and can it be 
That both are thus cut off by Fate's decree ? 
That she by you hath play'd the step-dame's part. 
And struck the pure and innocent of heart ; 
Hath torn with rudeness from the Muses' shrine 
The youthful votaries of an art divine ? 
What do we say ? these are but heathen words, 
And brighter hopes the Christian's creed affords ; 
No blind necessity has struck the blow, 
That laid the blossoms of our hopes so low. 
Though short to us their lives, for them too long. 
Who changed an earthly for a heavenly song, 



SUITORS TO THE DUCHESS. 



13 



And left th' endearments of a mother's love, 
For sweeter commune still in realms above. 
! in those glorious courts, where sorrows cease, 
Souls of the pure and blest for ever rest in peace ! 

Left unfettered by any ties, as was the Duchess at the death 
of her sons, and possessed of so many advantages, many suitors 
would of course become candidates for her hand. It is said that 
even Royalty ' itself was not unmindful of her position and 
merits. Young, handsome, and in high estimation, and holding 
one of the most ancient baronies in the kingdom, with wealth at 
her command, one cannot be surprised at her being thus valued, 
and sought after. Her choice, however, fell on Richard Bertie, 
of Berested, and whom we have so often mentioned, who proved 
himself worthy of the selection, being not only the sharer of her 
bright days of courtly favour and earthly prosperity, but her 
courageous and well-tried companion in the hours of affliction, 
suffering, and danger. The exact period of their engagement 
has not been ascertained, but it certainly existed in June, 1552, 
as may be very surely inferred from the following letter of the 
Duchess to Secretary Cecil, in the postscript of which she evi- 
dently alludes to some affairs of her late husband which she was 
desirous should be adjusted, before she disposed of herself in 
marriage a second time. 

^ She writes on sending him a buck, supposing that by its 
" late coming he will perceive that wild things be not ready at 
commandment." " Truly," she adds, " I have caused my keeper, 
yea, and went forth with him myself on Saturday at night after 



^ Sigismund, King of Poland, deposed in Sweden, 1604. 
2 Letter in the State Paper Office, Dom., June, 1552. 



I came home (which was a marvel for me), but so desirous was 
I to have had one for Mr. Latimer to have sent after him to his 
wife's churching ; but there is no remedy but she must be 
churched without it." She then presses upon him an hospitable 
invitation to come and take his pastime with his friends amongst 
her red deer, assuring him he shall be welcome, and they for his 
sake." Her notion of late hours is rather amusing. " From 
Grimsthorp this present Wednesday, at six o^clock in the morn- 
ing ; and like a sluggard in my bed." The postscript above 
alluded to runs thus : — 

" Master Bertie is at London, to conclude, if he can, with the 
heirs; for I would gladly discharge the trust wherein my Lord 
did leave me, before I did, for any man's pleasure, any thing 
else." 

Their union took place at Grysby, in Lincolnshire, in the year 
1552-3 *, the eighth year of Catherine's widowhood ; and the 
first child she bore him was a daughter", who, according to 
Holinshed, was a twelvemonth old when she went abroad; and 
who, notwithstanding all her perilous adventures, lived to be wife 
of the Earl of Kent. In the latter part of the reign of Edward 
the Sixth, the Duchess had distinguished herself by her zeal for 
the Reformation ; and when Mary's accession to the crown, and 
the power she placed in the hands of Gardiner, threw all who 
held its tenets into danger, she found herself exposed to the 
vengeance of an enemy who had both the will and the power to 



^ For the document which states their marriage, See Appendix, Art. X. 
Collier, in his Geographical and Historical Dictionary, says that Richard 
Bertie, in the reign of Edward the Sixth, msirried the Duchess of Suffolk. 

2 Susan, first married to Reginald, Earl of Kent ; secondly to Sir Thomas 
Wingfield. 



injure her. " Bishop Gardiner," says Fuller in his Church 
History, ''was enraged at her jests on himself, but still more at 
her earnestness towards God, and sincerity in religion." Incensed 
against her as he was, and regarding her as a foe, he would not 
let pass so favourable an opportunity of working her ruin : or as 
Holinshed very quaintly expresses it, in the time of Lent, "he 
devised a holy practice of revenge." His first step was to 
attack her in the person of her husband, Richard Bertie, to whom 
he sent a summons by the hands of the sheriff, comrnanding him 
to appear before him ; and urging as a plausible pretext for this 
peremptory order, the non-payment of certain sums which he 
alleged to be due to the Queen's father from the late Duke of 
Suffolk. Gardiner being in possession of the Royal signet, 
gave this process to the Sheriff of Lincolnshire, who, however, 
deemed it sufficient, instead of delivering it, to take Mr. Bertie's 
bond with two sureties for his appearance on the Good Friday 
following. 

^Accordingly, on the day appointed, Bertie repaired to the 
Bishop's house, who received him angrily, and threatened to 
punish him for contumacy, in not having previously obeyed the 
two summonses sent to him in the name of the Queen, to which 
Mr. Bertie replied that he had never received them. Gardiner, 
however, gave no heed to this answer, nor to his request to be 
fairly treated, but meaning, as he affirmed, to give up that day to 
devotional exercises, appointed the ensuing one for further con- 
ference ; when Bertie, conscious of his innocence towards his 
Sovereign, failed not to repair to the place of meeting. Before 
however the Bishop admitted him to his presence, he asked 



1 Holinshed, p. 1142. 



16 



EXAMINATION OF RICHARD BERTIE. 



several questions concerning him of a certain sergeant Stamford, 
who had been well acquainted with him whilst finishing his edu- 
cation with Wriothesley, Lord Southampton, Lord Chancellor of 
England. Stamford, however, did not administer to the malice 
of Gardiner, but gave a very friendly and favourable report of 
Mr. Bertie, during the time he had known him \ Bertie was then 
admitted ; but as it is impossible to give the full spirit of the 
conversation, or to do justice to the boldness and shrewdness of 
his replies, without using the expressions and language of the 
day, the whole shall be here transcribed in Holinshed's own 
words. 

GARDINER. 

"The queene's pleasure is, that you shall make present paiment 
of foure thousand pounds due to her father by duke Charles, 
late husband to the dutchesse your wife, whose executor she 
was." 

BERTIE. 

"Pleaseth it your lordship, that debt is estalled, and is accord- 
ing to that estallment truly answered." 

GARDINER. 

"Tush, the queene will not be bound to estallments in the time 
of Ket's government, for so I esteeme the late government. 

BERTIE. 

" The estallment was granted by King Henry the eighth, be- 
sides the same was by special commissioners confirmed in King 
Edward's time, and the lord treasurer being an executor also to 
the Duke solie and wholie tooke upon him before the said com- 
missioners to discharge the same." 



^ Holinshed. 



EXAMINATION OF RICHARD BERTIE. 



17 



GARDINER. 

"If it be true that you saie, T will shew you favor. But of 
another thing, Maister Bertie, I will admonish you, as meaning 
you well. I heare euill of your religion, yet I hardlie can think 
euill of you, whose mother^ I knew to be as godlie a catholike as 
anie within this land, your selfe brought up with a maister, whose 
education if I should disallow, I might be charged as author of 
his error. Besides, partlie I know you myself, and understand 
inough of my friends, to make me your friend ; wherefore I will 
not doubt of you, but I praie you if I maie ask the question of 
my ladie your wife, is she now as ready to set up the mass, as 
she was latelie to pull it downe, when she caused a dog in a 
rochet to be carried and called by my name. Or doth she 
thinke his lambs now safe inough which said to me when I 
hailed my bonnet to her out of my chamber- window in the tower, 
that it was merie with the lambs now the wolfe was shut up. 
Another time ^ my lord hir husband having invited me ' and 
diverse ladies to dinner, desired every ladie to choose him whom 
she loued best, and so place themselves. My ladie your wife 
taking me by the hand, for that my lord would not have hir to take 
himself, said, that for so much as she could not sit downe with 
my lord whom she loued best, she had chosen me, whom she 
loued worst." 

BERTIE. 

" Of the devise of the dog, she was neither the author nor the 
allower. The words, though in that season they sounded bitter 
to your lordship, yet if it should please you without offence to 
know the cause, I am sure the one will purge the other. As 

' She was of the ancient family of the Says of Salop. 
2 Her first hushand, the Duke of Suffolk. 

D 



18 



EXAMINATION OF RICHARD BERTIE. 



touching setting up of masse, which she learned not onlie by 
strong persuasions of diuerse excellent learned men, but by uni- 
versal consent and order whole six years past inwardlie to 
abhorre, if she should outwardlie allow she should both to Christ 
shew hirselfe a false Christian, and unto hir prince a masking 
subject. You know, my lord, one by judgement reformed, is 
more worth than a thousand transformed temporisers. To force 
a confession of religion by mouth contrarie to that in the heart, 
worketh damnation where salvation is pretended." 

GARDINER. 

" Yea marie, that deliberation would do well if she neuer re- 
quired to come from an old religion to a new. But now she is 
to returne from a new to an ancient religion ; wherein when she 
made me hir gossip ^ she was as earnest as anie." 

BERTIE. 

" For that, my Lord, not long since she answered a friend of 
hir's, using your Lordship's speech, that religion went not by 
age, but by truth ; and therefore she was to be turned by per- 
suasion, and not by commandement." 

GARDINER. 

" I praie you, thinke you it possible to persuade hir?" 

BERTIE. 

"Yea, verily, with the truth^ for she is reasonable enough." 

GARDINER. 

" It will be a marvellous griefe to the prince of Spaine, and to 
all the nobilitie that shall come with him, when they shall find 
but two noble personages within this land, of the Spanish race. 



^ At confirmation. 

2 " Bertie, a gentleman of the truth," as Mr. Hugh Rose, in his bio- 



graphy, styles him. 



WARNING AGAINST GARDINER. 19 



the Queene, and my ladie your wife, and one of them gone from 
the faith." 

BERTIE. 

"I trust they shall find no fruits of infidelitie in her." 
So the Bishop, persuading Mr. Bertie to trauell earnestlie for 
the reformation of hir opinion, and offering large friendship, 
released him of his hand from further appearance. 

Although the crafty Gardiner was thus silenced for a time \ 
and had, probably, no ready reply to make to declarations so 
true, yet delivered with so much prudence ; so bold, yet so 
cautiously worded ; it appears that his lurking enmity was only 
lulled, not appeased ; and that the friends of Bertie and the 
Duchess warned them not to trust his apparent reconciliation, 
but to find means to withdraw themselves from the perils of 
residence in England, before such peril became more imminent, 
and his projects of vengeance were matured. 

There was but one plausible- pretext, without creating sus- 
picion, for their flying the country, or rather withdrawing them- 
selves : large sums of money were due to the late Duke of Suf- 
folk from persons in foreign parts, and more especially from the 
Emperor Charles the Fifth. As the Duchess had been his 
executor, it was natural that she should make application for 
the payment of these, and most natural that she should depute 
her husband, Mr. Bertie, to act for her on the occasion. If, 
therefore, he could obtain the necessary permission from the 
Queen to pass the seas, a door would be opened for their es- 
cape; and for this purpose he was obliged to have recourse to 
Gardiner ; and after unfolding his intention to travel, and re- 

^ Fox's Martyrologyj under the Duchess of Suffolk and Richard Bertie ; 
also Holinshed's Chronicles. 

D 2 



20 LICENSE OBTAINED. 



questing the desired license from the Queen, he urged as a 
reason for using dispatch, that the present was a favourable 
moment to deal with the Emperor, as the marriage between 
Queen Mary and his son was then in contemplation. 

BISHOP. 

" ^ I like your deuise well, but I think it better that you 
tarrie the prince's coming, and I will procure you his letters 
also to his father." 

BERTIE. 

" Naie, under your Lordship's correction, and pardon of so 
liberall speech, I suppose the time will be then less conuenient; 
for when the marriage is consummate, the Emperour hath his 
desire ; but till then he will refuse nothing to win credit with 
us." 

BISHOP. 

" By Saint Marie, you gesse shrewdlie. Well, proceed in 
your sute, and it shall not lacke my helping hand." 

- Mr. Bertie continued therefore to press his suit ; and so 
completely succeeded as to obtain the Queen's license ^, not only 
to travel, but to pass and repass the seas so often as he should 
find it necessary for the arrangement of his affairs ; and of this 
permission he availed himself; for although he sailed from 
Dover, in June, 1554, yet he subsequently returned to aid the 
Duchess's escape, and embarked with her a second time from 
Gravesend. The perils and sufferings which assailed them, and 
the persecution which was their lot, even after quitting their 
native shores, must form a separate narrative. 

^ Fox's Martyrology, Holinshed's Chronicles. 
2 Ibid. 
^ Vide the naturalization of their son Peregrine, Apj)endix, art. C. C. 




[From an old print in Wood's Coll. Ashmolean.] 



THE FLIGHT, ESCAPE, AND SUFFERINGS OF MR. BERTIE 
AND THE DUCHESS OF SUFFOLK. 

It appears from Holinshed, that the intended flight of the 
Duchess was not intrusted by Mr. Bertie to any one but an old 
and tried friend, a gentleman of the name of Robert Cranwell ; 
and that when the time approached, or rather the very moment 
of her departure, she required the services of four men servants, 
and two female attendants, one of whom was a laundress. The 
former consisted of a Greek, who was a rider, a brewer, a joiner, 
and a kind of cook, so oddly made up were the households of 
those times. 

^ It was on a miserable foggy morning, the first of January, 
1554-5, that this persecuted lady began her adventurous travels. 
It appears that she did not dare to repose confidence in her own 
servants ; and that so great was her danger become, that it was 



1 Hoi. Chron., Fox. 



99 



NARROW ESCAPE. 



no longer possible to make open preparations for departure, 
without calling on her head the lurking malice of her enemy ; 
and she had no chance but in secresy and silence. At an early 
hour, (between four and five o'clock,) she left her house ' in the 
Barbican^, with the intention of going to a place called Lion 
Key ^, from whence she purposed to embark, carrying with her 
her little daughter, a child of a year old ; and having furnished 
herself with such things as she deemed necessary for their jour- 
ney, as noiselessly as possible the Duchess descended and passed 
into the street ; and then, having collected her small company, 
was on the point of departing, when she was suddenly alarmed 
by the appearance of a person issuing from her house, bearing a 
torch in his hand, and evidently bent on discovering the cause of 
the unusual bustle in the house at that hour. They were stand- 
ing in a kind of lodge, or "gatehouse," and at the moment the 
darkness was in their favour ; but any unfortunate gleam from 
the torch which the man held might discover the fugitives, 
(although the Duchess wore the disguise of a merchant's wife,) 
as the person who thus looked out was the keeper of her house, 
and of course would recognise her. Not an instant was to be 
lost ; and hastily commanding the rest of her servants to meet 
her at Lion Key, and in the confusion of the moment being 
forced to abandon all her luggage and provisions, she fled with 



1 Hoi. Chron. 

2 This house in the Barbican, a part of London running close to Alders- 
gate-street, was part of the Duchess's paternal inheritance, descending to 
her from the Uffords, Earls of Suffolk, not from her husband, Brandon, 
Duke of Suffolk. 

2 Lion Key lay between Billingsgate and London Bridge, vide an old 
map in the Bodleian Library, drawn up by Agas in the year 1560, and 
reprinted by Vertue, for the Society of Antiquaries, in the year 1737. 



ARRIVAL AT MOORE GATE. 



23 



all speed, taking with her only the two women and her child \ 
Her pursuer was close at hand, but she suddenly turned into a 
dwelling called Garter House ; and he, seeing no one near, 
retraced his steps ; when, on his return, his attention was di- 
verted by the sight of the packages, or " male," left behind ; and 
whilst he stayed to ransack and examine them, she again issued 
into the street, and made the best of her way to the aforesaid 
'' keie," taking the route through Finsbury Fields, and meeting 
her attendants at Moore Gate, close to Lion Key. Here they 
took barge ; but so dark and unfavourable was the appearance of 
the morning, that it was some time before they could persuade 
the steersman to launch ^. 



1 Holinshed, p. 1143. 

2 Fuller, who relates, in his Ecclesiastical History, that the Duchess and 
her hushand went together, does not mention where they met : an old hallad 
of the day says at Billingsgate. (See Appendix for the Ballad, art. U.) Be 
that as it may, he was undoubtedly with her when she embarked at Graves- 
end, according to a very curious and interesting document preserved in the 
Rolls Chapel, Chancery Lane, which gives an account of an inquisition taken 
in Kent, by virtue of an order of the Exchequer, in the 3rd and 4th of Philip 
and Mary, and which accuses Richard Bertewe, and Katherine, Duchess of 
Suffolk, his wife, of having cunningly and deceitfully "taken shipping at 
Gravesend," and with them one Margaret Blakeborne, gentlewoman. It is 
valuable, as offering a complete refutation to a late calumny advanced by Mr. 
Lodge against Richard Bertie ; namely, of his having departed without his 
wife, leaving her to make her escape alone. Mr, Lodge, however, is prover- 
bial, as a certain eminent author observes, " for his elegant aberrations from 
the truth." (Vide Tytler's Letters of Edward the Sixth and Mary.) It fur- 
ther states, that in consequence of their breach of obedience and loyalty, they 
had forfeited their goods and chattels, as also the guardianship of a certain 
orphan, by name Agnes Woodhall, which guardianship, after passing through 
many hands, now reverted to its original possessor, the Crown. The docu- 
ment further relates, that from Gravesend they sailed in the same ship, on 
the 5th of February, 1 and 2 of Philip and Mary. See Appendix, art. W, 




In the mean while she left much perplexity and confusion be- 
hind ; for as soon as the day was sufficiently advanced, the 
Council was informed of her departure, and some of its members 
forthwith repaired to her house, to make inquiries respecting it, 
and to take an inventory of her goods ^ ; they also devised means 
for preventing her escape, if possible, and gave orders to watch 
for and apprehend her. 

The Duchess, however, arrived in Leigh ^, hoping to rest 
there for awhile; but the fame of her flight had reached that 
place before her; and Mr. Cranwell, who was now with her, 
sought with anxiety a temporary refuge ; and finding there an 
old acquaintance of his, a merchant of London, of the name of 
Gosling, he threw himself and his charge under his protection ; 
and leading the Duchess and her infant to his house, entreated 
him to have pity on the wanderers. Gosling kindly received 
them ; and to secure her safety, addressed her as his daughter, 
one Mrs. White, who was unknown in those parts ; so that 
through this device she escaped detection, and gladly made use 
of the respite thus afforded, to recruit herself for further 
fatigues. 

When the time arrived for her to put to sea, she and her 
husband embarked together at Gravesend; but contrary winds 
arose, and after nearly reaching the coast of Zealand, they were 



^ It seems that a like inquisition into the property and goods of Bertie 
and the Duchess, took place subsequently in Lincolnshire, in the month of 
September, 1555. See extract from the Privy Council books of Philip and 
Mary, Appendix, art. X, from which document it also appears they went 
together. See also other Privy Council orders relative to her. 

2 A small fishing-town on the Thames, near Southend, about twenty miles 
below Gravesend, at what was then termed Land's End. 



LANDING IN BRABANT. 



25 



driven back to the place whence they came. A suspicion was 
afloat that she was on board ; and consequently some persons 
who were on the look out, came down to the shore, to make 
what discovery they could. Here a new danger arose ^ : one of 
the ship's company went on shore to obtain fresh *' achates^," 
and was immediately examined as to the names and quality of 
the persons on board. From the simplicity of the tale he told, 
they gathered only that a meanly attired merchant's wife was in 
the vessel, and therefore forbore to molest them. They set sail 
again, and without further interruption landed in Brabant, where 
the Duchess proceeded on her journey with her husband ; and 
changing their late disguise for that of peasants of the country, 
they journeyed on to a town in the duchy of Cleves, called 
Santon, and for a while reposed themselves. 

But their difficulties were not yet overcome. Mr. Bertie was 
anxious to lodge his wife safely at Wesel, a town in the same 
duchy, where he hoped she might receive courtesy and pro- 
tection, as she was acquainted with a resident, one Francis 
Perusell, then called Francis de Rivers, who had taken refuge 
there, with many of his persuasion, from religious persecution. 
This man had formerly, when in England, received kindness 
from the Duchess. Wesel is one of the Hans towns, and many 
of the Walloons ^ had fled there, having this Francis Perusell for 
their minister ; to him Mr. Bertie wrote before their departure 



1 Hoi. Chron. p. 1143. 

2 The word achates signifies small provisions. In all great households 
there was a department called the accatery, of which the chief officer was 
called the accaterer ; from whence we have the word caterer, one who sees to 
the furnishing of provisions for a party, or any small collection of persons. 

3 The Walloons were Protestant inhabitants of French Flanders. 

E 




from Santon, begging him to obtain from the magistrates a pro- 
tection, with permission for them to abide at the city, though 
their real names and condition were only disclosed to the chief 
magistrate. 

While these proceedings were being favourably conducted, a 
gentleman at Santon suddenly came to seek Mr. Bertie, and 
made known to him certain facts, which induced him to hasten 
his departure. He informed him that it was already whispered 
abroad, that he and his lady were other than what they seemed, 
and that it was intended by the authorities, and chiefly by the 
Bishop of Arras ' (dean of the great minster), to come suddenly 
upon them, and make inquiries as to their religion and condition. 
Mr. Bertie heard his friendly adviser to the end, and then imme- 
diately devised means to save his wife and child from danger. 
He left the house with them, pretending to go and take the air, 
accompanied by two servants only ; and thus, on foot, in Febru- 
ary, at about three in the afternoon, they once more found them- 
selves on the eve of a wearisome and perilous journey. 

They had not proceeded above an English mile from the 
town, when a violent and continued storm of rain came on, and 
thawing the frost and ice which had been long congealed, added 
to the inconveniences and difficulties of their route. Night 
approached, and the poor lady was so spent with fatigue and 
anxiety, that she was glad to resign her child to the charge of 
its father, and to bear, as an easier burthen, his cloak and rapier. 
Their servants they had despatched to the neighbouring village, 

^ Holinshed, p. 1144. — This Bishop of Arras was the famous Antoine de 
Perrault, Cardinal de Granvelle, the minister of Phihp the Second, and the 
negotiator of his marriage with Mary, and all-powerful in the Low Coun- 
tries. 



SUFFERINGS AT WESEL. 27 



to obtain, if possible, some conveyance, which could not be got ; 
and thus, at about seven on a dark winter's night, they entered 
Wesel \ and tried to gain admittance into the various inns, offer- 
ing to pay, or more than pay, for the smallest lodging. Wearily 
did they find their way from inn to inn, intreating hospitality ; 
but driven from every door, and so unfortunately circumstanced, 
that whereas suspicion of their being greater than they seemed 
had obliged them to quit Santon, so at Wesel they were persecuted 
from being regarded not only as persons of mean quality, but of 
indifferent character, and Mr, Bertie believed to be a lantz- 
hnecht ^. So stood they in this inhospitable city, the rain from 
heaven still descending in torrents ; and she who had been 
accustomed to princely splendour, without shelter for herself or 
the infant, who cried piteously. Her resolution had long sup- 
ported her, but could not prevent her mingling her tears with 
those of her child, when both literally and metaphorically dark- 
ness and storms hovered over them. 

What resource remained ? Mr. Bertie tried to cheer his suf- 
fering companion, and led her to the porch of the large church in 
the town, resolved to buy provisions, and straw for such repose 
as they could get that miserable night, and to trust in God's pro- 
vidence soon to be able to procure her a better lodging. 

The night was too unfavourable to allow of many persons being 
in the street at that hour ; and amongst those few, Mr. Bertie 
could find none that were able to speak either English, French, or 
Italian. ^ At last, near the church porch, he saw two striplings 

^ Fox's Martyrology. HoUiished, p. 1143 — 5. 

2 Holinslied. — The lantz-knecht was the common foot-soldier of Germany, 
and deservedly held in detestation for rapacity and brutality. 
2 Holinshed. 

E 2 



28 



PERUSELL S RECEPTION. 



holding a conversation together, and approaching, found that 
they were speaking Latin ; he accosted them in that language, 
begging them to lead the way to the house of some Walloon, and 
offering two stivers if they would do him this kind office. Under 
the guidance of these boys they again set forth, and were most 
providentially conducted to the very house where their friend, 
Mr. Perusell, was at that moment supping, and where he had 
just been interesting the company in their favour. They knocked 
at the door, and their summons was answered by the goodman 
of the house, who asked Mr. Bertie who he was. " An English- 
man," answered he, " seeking one Master Perusell's house." 
The Walloon intreated him to wait a moment, while he went 
back to inform Mr. Perusell that the English gentleman of whom 
they had been speaking had sent him a messenger, probably his 
servant. 

^ Mr. Perusell hastened to the door, and there beheld, with 
astonishment, faces once so familiar to him in the sunshine of 
their own land, so altered by anxiety and weariness, and so diffi- 
cult to recognise, from the effects of toil and weather, that un- 
able from grief to give at once, in words, the welcome which he 
was prepared to offer, he silently, and with tears, greeted the 
weary wanderers, and led the way into the house, where they 
thankfully received such accommodation as they had need of. 

They now conceived themselves happily settled ^ ; and no 
longer deeming it necessary so entirely to conceal their condition, 
they a few days after hired a good house in the town, and there 
established themselves. Here the Duchess gave birth to a son^, 

^ Holinshed, p. 1145. 

2 Dugdale's Baronage, Camden's Britannia. 

2 See the proofs of his birth, given in his own history. 



mason's warning. 29 



named Peregrine, from the circumstance of his being born in a 
foreign land, and during the wanderings of his parents. 

It was very soon rumoured throughout the town, with what 
great and cruel inhospitality Mr. Bertie and his lady had been 
treated on their arrival ; and the fact gave occasion to one of 
their preachers, on the following Sunday, openly to rebuke such 
uncivil and unkind behaviour towards strangers. Many were 
the eloquent and forcible appeals to Scripture in his discourse, 
wherein he affirmed, that not only had it occurred that princes 
had been entertained in the disguise of private persons, but even 
the spiritual inhabitants of heaven, angels themselves in the 
shape of men, as we are told, " unawares." He proceeded to 
warn them, that such want of charity was highly displeasing 
to the Almighty, who " of his justice would make the strangers 
one day in another land to have more sense of the afflicted heart 
of a stranger." 

The enemies of our travellers- did not long allow them to rest 
in security, but laid another plot for their ruin. It was cun- 
ningly devised ; but owing to the friendly warning given them 
by Sir John Mason, the English ambassador in the Netherlands, 
it failed of its effect. He discovered and informed the fugitives, 
that Lord Paget intended to feign an errand to the baths ; and 
that the Duke of Brunswick was, with ten '' enseignes V' to pass 
through Wesel, on the service of the Duke of Austria against 
the French king, and that the company was to intercept and 
make them captives. Mr. Bertie, therefore, found himself under 
the necessity of again removing ^ his family, and conveyed them 



^ Holinshed. — The '' enseignes " mean companies or battalions. 

2 In April, 1556, Mr. Bertie was at Strasbourg, from whence he was sent 



30 INVITATION TO POLAND. 



immediately to Wanheim, in High Dutcliland, a country under 
the dominion of the Palsgrave ; and here, by his permission, and 
through his protection, they dwelt, till their means began to fail 
them, and their condition again to assume an almost hopeless 
aspect. 

Whilst they were thus rather cheerlessly contemplating their 
future prospects, their spirits were suddenly revived by the 
receipt of letters from the Palatine of Wilna, and Sigismund, 
King of Poland \ who hearing of their suffering and distress from 
a " baron ^," John Alasco, who had been in England, sent to offer 
them any courtesy they could show. They could not, however, im- 
mediately decide on accepting it, as that land was so far removed 
from their own, and so unfrequented by English ; and they could 
not but be somewhat doubtful what their reception, after all, 
might be. In this dilemma they applied to Barlow ^, afterwards 

for, with Dr. Sandys and Dr. Cox, to arbitrate some religious differences at 
Frankfort. These two divines were fellow- sufferers with him, and had been 
obliged to flee from England together. With Dr. Sandys he seems to have 
had a previous acquaintance ; as Holinshed, in speaking of the doctor's per- 
secution in his own country, mentions that he conveyed himself by night to 
Mr. Bertie's house, " who was with him in the Marshalsea (prison) a while ; 
he was a good Protestant, and dwelt in Mark Lane." All parties were will- 
ing to refer to theu' arbitration, but differed on the terms of their reference. 

^ Dugdale, Holinshed. 

2 He was a nobleman of Poland, and when in England an intimate friend 
of Cranmer's, which may account for his acquaintance with Bertie and the 
Duchess. In his youth he had been the pupil of Erasmus ; but embracing 
the principles of the Reformation, became preacher to a Protestant con- 
gregation at Embden. 

^ A zealous professor of the Protestant religion, who was deprived of his 
see of Bath and Wells on the accession of Mary, escaped to Germany, and 
on Elizabeth's inauguration returned ; and in 1559, was advanced to the 
bishopric of Chichester. He had five daughters all married to bishops. 



Bishop of Chichester, offering to make him a party to any ad- 
vantages that might accrue to them from the step, provided he 
would previously convey for them messages and solicitations to 
the king. He consented so to do ; and being charged with the 
expression of their thanks, with a few valuable jewels yet re- 
maining to them, and with entreaties that the king would be 
graciously pleased to confirm to them under his seal, the as- 
surances of protection he had so honourably offered, he set for- 
ward on his mission, and, through the friendly assistance of the 
Palatine, completely succeeded in his undertaking. 

Comforted, therefore, by these assurances of royal good will 
and protection, Mr. Bertie and the Duchess ^ left Wanheim in 
April, 1557, and took the road to Frankfort ^ which they did 
not, however, reach without adventure. It appears that the cap- 
tain or commander for the Landgrave in these parts, was not 
disposed to let them pass without molestation. He sought a 
pretext for a quarrel with Mr. Bertie, and succeeded in finding 
one on the subject of a spaniel belonging to the latter ; and on 
this apparently trifling ground, attacked them on the road with 
his horsemen, proceeding to such extremities, that they actually 

^ Holinsiied. 

2 " It would tire our pen to trace their movements from their house in 
Barbican to Lion's Key, thence to Leigh, thence over seas, being twice 
driven back again, into Brabant, thence to Santon, a city of Cleveland, 
thence to Frankfort," &c.— Gentleman's Magazine for August, 1806, p. 691, 
vol. Ixxvi. part ii. Also vol. Ixxvii. part i. p. 200 : this article professes to 
give the history of the flight of Mr. Bertie and the Duchess, as it expresses 
it, "in the quaint but nervous language of Dr. Fuller," beginning thus : "^'The 
following remarkable history of a noble personage, from whom one of the 
most illustrious of our dukes is lineally descended, is transmitted to you," 
&c. 



32 BERTIE ASSAILED. 



thrust their boar spears into the waggon in which the w'omen 
and children were. 

Mr. Bertie had on his side but four horsemen, and with this 
small force opposed the assailants, who pressed hard upon him. 
During the defence, the captain's horse was slain under him, 
which mischance, though it may have been at the instant ser- 
viceable to the fugitives, drew Mr. Bertie, at least, into further 
danger; for soon a report was spread through the adjacent towns 
and villages (which greatly incensed their inhabitants), that the 
Landgrave's captain himself had been slain by some Walloons. 
So violently now was their indignation turned against him, that 
his wife counselled and intreated him to take refuge in a town ; 
but on his doing so, he found the townsmen and the captain's 
brother, who was unfortunately there, so bent on revenging his 
supposed death, that they rushed forward to apprehend and 
murder him. It was useless to attempt, however, an explana- 
tion to persons whose blind fury closed their ears ' ; and Mr. 
Bertie, as the crowds pressed on him, seeing a ladder placed 
against a window, availed himself of it to gain the upper story of 
a house, where, for a space, he defended himself with his dagger 
and rapier. At length, however, the burgomaster and another 
magistrate arriving on the spot, he was advised to submit him- 
self to the law. To this Mr. Bertie, who w-ell knew not only 
that he was innocent, but the captain alive, could make no ob- 
jection ; provided, he urged, that they would give him safe con- 
duct, and protect him from the rage of the multitude. This 
being promised, he yielded himself peaceably to the magistrate, 
and was taken into custody, but wrote immediately to the 

1 Holinshed, p. 1144,5. 



ACCESSION OF ELIZABETH. 33 

Landgrave, and the Earl of Erbagh, who, residing about eight 
miles from the spot, and being formerly acquainted with the 
Duchess, he thought might be induced to countenance them in 
this hour of need. 

He was not disappointed : the Earl of Erbagh arrived early in 
the morning, as the Duchess and her company entered ; and so 
respectfully did he receive her, that the townsmen, especially 
those who had been most violent, began (having now also disco- 
vered that the captain was still alive) to reconsider the matter, 
and ended by humbly beseeching Mr. Bertie ^ and his wife to 
make the least unfavourable report possible of their deeds. 

This last danger happily escaped, they proceeded on their 
journey towards Poland, where the king received and honourably 
placed them, not only affording them the protection he had pro- 
mised, but promoting them to a situation of honour and dignity. 
The county of Crozan, in Sanogelia, was a part of the dominions 
of the King of Poland, and this county he intrusted to their 
government, investing Mr. Bertie with his own sovereign au- 
thority, and in all things, and in all cases, permitting him to rule 
in his name. In quietness and peace, therefore (which must 
have been most acceptable), and in all honour, here they dwelt 
till the close of the reign of Queen Mary, that period so replete 
with misery and death, and which made the cheering accession of 
Elizabeth to the throne, and the peaceful days that succeeded it, 
appear yet more brilliant by the contrast with the storms that 
preceded them. Of those bloody times the poet thus speaks : 

tellus madefacta cruore 



Christicolum regerit decursus sanguinis atros. 



1 Holinshed. 



34 LETTER TO THE QUEEN. 



Heu ! carnem mollem puerorum devorat iguis ; 
Femina masque perit, nulla ratioue vix'ilis 
Feminei aut sexus habita. 

The Duchess's own emotions on receiving the joyful tidings, 
that those days of persecution were passed, are best understood 
from the following letter, written by her to the new sovereign, 
Elizabeth : 

" The almighty and ever-living God so endue your Majesty 
with his Spirit, that it may be said of you, as of his prophet 
David, * He hath found one even after his own heart.' Your 
Majesty, I know, well knoweth how, most naturally, all crea- 
tures embrace liberty and fly servitude, but man most specially, 
because God, of his fore- conceived kindness, created him there- 
unto ; and, fallen from it, freed him again. Wherefore so much 
the more lively is not only the desire, but the sense of it, in 
mankind, than in brute creatures, as the sharpness of reason 
exceedeth the dulness of unreasonableness. But yet then he 
feeleth it most at heart, when the liberty or freedom of con- 
science by unlocked fortune falleth out, even as sudden mis- 
fortune, after great sorrow, freezeth the heart ; and as health is 
most delectably felt after extreme sickness, so is the sense most 
inward in changes chiefly when oppression or deliverance of con- 
science showeth itself. And though such alterations follow com- 
monly the people of God, not by chance, but by his providence, 
and albeit He in all his works is good, and his works profitable 
to those that be his ; yet as his wrath and chastisement giveth 
just matter of mourning, so must his mercy and cheerful counte- 
nance fill our souls with gladness. Wherefore now is our season, 
if ever any where, of rejoicing, and to say, after Zachary, 
'Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,' which hath visited and 



delivered your Majesty, and by you us, his and your miserable 
and afflicted subjects. For if the Israelites might joy in their 
Deborah, how much we English in our Elizabeth that deliver- 
ance of our thralled conscience. Then first your Majesty hath 
great cause to praise God that it pleased Him to appoint you the 
mean whereby He showeth out this his great mercy over that 
land ; and we generally ought to praise, thank, and honour Him 
in you, and you in Him, with an unfeigned love and obedience 
all the days of our lives. It is comfort enough to all your sub- 
jects, that you do the will of Him that hath raised you up, spite 
of his and your enemies ; but unto the heavy hearts of your per- 
secuted subjects, these tidings distil like the sweet dew of Her- 
mon ; and though I have my portion of this gladness equal with 
the rest, yet I cannot choose but increase it with the remem- 
brance of your gracious good will towards me in times past, and 
with hope, continuance of the same in time to come ; only 1 
greedily wait and pray to the Almighty to consummate this con- 
solation, giving me a prosperous journey once again presently to 
see your Majesty, to rejoice together with my countryfolks, and 
to sing a song to the Lord in my native land. God for his mercy 
grant it, and to your Majesty long life, with safe government, to 
his glory, your honour, and subjects comfort. From Crossen, in 
Sanogelia, the 25th of January. 

" Your Majesty's 
" Most humble, loving, and obedient subject, 

*'K. Suffoulk\" 

" To the Queen's most excellent Majesty." 



* Katherine, Duchess of Suffolk, to Queeu Elizabeth, January 25, 1559. 
State Paper Office, Domestic. 

F 2 



A return from exile, however safe or honourable that exile 
may have been, must still be a cause of rejoicing, and an incite- 
ment to gratitude ; and no doubt Mr. Bertie and the Duchess 
fully experienced both these feelings, when, after their long ab- 
sence from their native shores, they set foot together on the coast 
of England, bringing with them their two children, and acknow- 
ledging the protecting hand of that merciful Providence, which 
had been their guide and preserver, and was now the haven of 
their rest. 

Having thus happily brought to a 
close the narrative of the persecu- 
tions endured by Mr. Bertie and his 
wife, and safely reconducted them to 
their own country, and to the repos- 
session of their lands and dignities, 
we must give a short space to a few 
remarks concerning them, before the 
page of history is closed upon them, and we turn from the tomb 
containing their earthly remains, to record the actions of their son 
Peregrine, the gallant inheritor of their name and honours. 




It appears that after their return to England, Mr. Bertie and 
his wife were willing to enjoy the tranquillity that followed such 
stormy times. There can be no doubt that he might have been 
actively employed in a public station, had he been willing so to 
devote his leisure ; which fact is sufficiently proved by a letter ' 



1 Burleigh Papers, 1562-3. Lansdowne MSS., No. 6, art. 35. Letter of 
the Duchess of Suffolk to Cecil, indorsed, " 30th October, 1563. Duchess 
of Suffolk thanks him, &c. with a postscript from Mr. Bertie to him, refusing 
public employment." 



BERTIE TO CECIL. 37 



now existing in the British Museum, dated October, 30, 1562-3, 

addressed to Cecil, then chief secretary of state, by the Duchess, 

to which Mr. Bertie adds the following postscript : 

" As your loving commendations much comforted me, so the 

signification to some public function much encumbered me ; yea, 

so much, that if your gravity had not been the better known to 

me, I should have thought it scant seriously written ; but seeing 

you meant it faithfully, I pray you in season correct your error, 

in preferring insufficiency for sufficiency, and to deliver yourself 

from rebuke, and me from shame. My hope is, that I shall find 

you so friendly, and readily hereunto inclined, that I shall not 

need to iterate my suit. 

" R. Bertie." 

Though declining office, Mr. Bertie did not, however, as yet 
devote himself only to literary pursuits : in this same year 
(1563 ^) he was, with Cecil, elected representative of the county 
of Lincoln, and sat in Parliament for four years ^ ; and during 
this period, in the year 1564, he attended the Queen on her visit 
to Cambridge. Great preparations were made for her reception ; 
and for five successive days, the University entertained their 
sovereign with orations, comedies, and tragedies. On this occa- 
sion Richard Bertie, with others of the court ^, received the 

^ See Appendix, art. Y, for a transaction in the same year, in which 
Richard Bertie bore a part, extracted from the deeds contained in the Cor- 
poration chest at Maidstone, by Mr. Clement Smythe, to whom the author is 
indebted for this and many other documents respecting Bersted. 

2 Brown Willis, vol. iii. p. 73. 

2 Viz. Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk ; Ratcliffe, Earl of Sussex ; 
Ambrose Dudley, Earl of Warwick ; Edward Vere, Earl of Oxford ; Man- 
ners, Earl of Rutland ; Sir William Cecil, Knight ; Sir Francis Knolles, 
Knight ; — Heneage, Esq. ; — Audley, Esq. ; and others. 



38 THE queen's oration. 



degree of Master of Arts ^ and the Queen made the following 
oration : 

" Albeit, my most loyal subjects, and my best beloved Uni- 
versity, a maiden blush in such a concourse of learned men 
might rather challenge silence, than the utterance of such an 
unpolished speech or oration before you, yet the earnest en- 
treaties of my nobles in your behalf, and my own free well wish- 
ing to this Muses' cell, makes me now to attempt something. I 
am incited hereunto by a two-fold instigation : the first is the 
increase of scholarship, which I both heartily wish, and with an 
entire zeal pray for ; the other is your general expectation of 
somewhat to be done at this time. As concerning the further- 
ance of literature, one thing, which I have gleaned from De- 
mosthenes, haps happily into my memory ; which is, that the 
very sayings of superiors are as much as books to the lower sort, 
and that the sovereign word stands for a law to the obedient 
subject. This one thing, therefore, I would that you remember, 
that there is no way, either for weariness more short, or for cer- 
tainty more strait, towards either the bettering of your fortunes, 
or obtaining favour from your prince, than that you employ your 
best endeavours in atchieving arts' perfection ; for which cause, 
as you had semblance to begin, so that you would still persevere, 
I do not only entreat, but beseech you also. Concerning the se- 
cond motive (to wit, your present expectation), thus absolutely I 
aver, that willingly I will neglect nothing that may prejudice 
your loving and kind conceit of me. Now at the length I come 
to speak concerning this University. In the forenoon I viewed 
your stately structures, nurseries of good learning, built by 

^ Nichols' Progi'esses, Biographia Britannica. 



THE queen's oration. 39 



princes of famous memory, my predecessors, during which time 
of beholding them an inward grief possessed me, even till I 
sighth'd again ; the like whereof, as report speaks, troubled 
great Alexander, who when he read of many monuments of 
other princes, and turning him aside to one of his familiar 
acquaintances, or rather one of his council, it much grieved him, 
he said, that any for his time should exceed him in famous 
stratagems. No less pensive was I when I beheld your col- 
leges, that in that kind I was never very proficient ; yet in this 
part the old and vulgar proverb does somewhat sustain me ; and 
albeit it cannot quite abolish, yet it helpeth to mitigate my 
grief, to wit: 'Rome was not built in one day.' Nevertheless, 
neither am I so aged, neither hath my time of rule been so large, 
but that before I tender nature's due (may that fatal Atropos 
spare to cut my thread of life over hastily !), in this kind, I will 
perform some noble act, from which resolution, whilst I have 
beings will I never bend ; and if it happen (which how soon, 
alas ! I am altogether ignorant) that I must leave this life, before 
that which I have vowed to accomplish, yet after my death I 
will leave some notable work to survive me, whereby not only 
my name shall be famous to posterity, but where by my example 
I will provoke others, and add cheerfulness to you, and to your 
studies. At this instant you may perceive the difference betwixt 
learning practised, and learning by me neglected, of one of the 
which, many competent witnesses are extant ; of the other, too 
much unavoidably even now I have called all you to testify. 
Time now is that your ears, too much detained with this hard 
kind of speech, should be freed from the dislike of tedious 
prolixity. The philosophic positions : ' A monarchy is the best 
state of a commonwealth. The often change of laws is danger- 



40 LADY MARY GREY. 



ous.' N. B. Physic. ' One kind of meat is better than many. 
A large supper is better than a large dinner.' N. B. Divinity. 
' The authority of the Scriptures greater than of the Church. A 
civil magistrate hath authority in ecclesiastical affairs.' N. B. 
Civil law. ' Any private person may be compelled to undergo 
a public office. He that lends money to one playing at dice, can- 
not require it again \' " 

The rest of the history of Richard Bertie and the Duchess 
does not present many striking adventures ; several of their let- 
ters, however, are still extant among the Burleigh Papers, and 
the circumstance of their intimacy with this celebrated man, has 
been the means of preserving recollections of their feelings and 
actions. 

In the year 1567, a sort of state prisoner was committed to 
the charge of the Duchess, under rather remarkable circum- 
stances. The Lady Mary Grey, the granddaughter of her first 
husband, Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, had been long in 
disgrace on account of her mesalliance with Mr. Thomas Keys, 
sergeant-porter at court, or sometimes called gentleman-porter. 
They were almost immediately separated ; and whilst he was 
imprisoned in the Fleet, to wear out the rest of a very miserable 
life, the afflicted lady, his wife, was detained a prisoner,, first at a 
place called the Chequers, in Buckinghamshire, under the charge 
of its owner, Mr. Haw trey, and after two years resigned to the 

' The oration of Queen Elizabeth, made in St. Mary's Church, to the 
whole University (of Cambridge ? [vide Harrington's Nugse]), in the year of 
our Lord 1564, Augvist 10. The last positions were not disputed, because 
the time did not permit. From a copy, by the Honourable Charles Bertie 
Percy, of a paper in the possession of the late Lady Willoughby at Grims- 
thorpe. 



ILLNESS OF THE DUCHESS. 41 

guardianship of her step-grandmother. The Duchess, on the 
9th of August, 1567, writes, from the Queen's house at Green- 
wich, what she terms "a begging letter " to Cecil, the secretary, 
and makes all the interest she can for her unhappy charge, 
" who," she adds, "is not only in countenance, but in very deed, 
sad and ashamed of her fault." The Duchess's requests are cer- 
tainly not exorbitant. After complaining of her poverty since 
her return from the other side of the sea, which had prevented 
her furnishing her own house at Grimsthorpe, she begs Lady 
Mary may be allowed the furniture of one room for herself and 
her maid, " some old silver pots to fetch her drink in, and ij lyttel 
coupes to drinke in. A bason and ewer, I fear were too much ; 
but all these things she lacks, and it were meet she had, and has 
nothing in the world." She remained with the Duchess till June, 
1569, when she was made over to the care of Sir Thomas 
Gresham \ Whether the Duchess's requirements were granted 
does not appear, but they are too- characteristic of the times, and 
its modes of expression, to be altogether omitted. 

In the meanwhile, during her residence at Greenwich, or as 
Richard Bertie terms it, " the south," the Duchess was attacked 
by a violent fit of illness, which called him with all speed from 
Lincolnshire, on which occasion he quaintly describes her condi- 
tion, and his own alarm, in a letter to Sir W. Cecil. After observ- 
ing that Cecil might consider it " strange," if he omitted hearty 
thanks for many courtesies he had received from him, he adds, 
" peradventure you will think it strangest to hear from me out 
of the south, but that the rumour of the Duchess's dangerous 



1 See Mr. Burgon's interesting account of this unfortunate lady, in his 
Life of Sir Thomas Gresham, 



42 CORRESPONDENCE RESUMED. 

sickness spread over the land, could not be hid from the court, 
the wind whereof made as great a wonder upon the land in Lin- 
colnshire, as often is seen upon the seas, two ships with one 
wind carried contrary ways. So my Lord Monteagle's ^ men, by 
occasion of report, so far by the way encreased, that my lady was 
dead, before almost she fell sick, carried them apace northward, 
and me faster southward, with minds and prayers as contrary. 
But this wind, by God's great mercy well blown over, will 
shortly, I trust, bring us together in a calm ; for my lady, 
though she continue a bedwoman, and not a footwoman, yet God 
be praised, she groweth a little and little stronger than her sick- 
ness, and sendeth to you, and to my lady your wife, as strong 
and hearty commendations as ever she did ; and I pray you both 
think that my devotion towards you is even as great as hers, 
though I take it to be in the superlative degree. Rest you both 
most happily in God. From Barbican, the 12th of September, 
1568. 

"Yours most assuredly at commandment, 

"R. Bertie ^" 

To return to the Duchess's own correspondence with Cecil, 
even in the excitement of the year 1568-9, we find he spared 
time to inform them how matters stood, and what progress the 
rebellion had made, or what checks it had received, for she cor- 
dially thanks him for his letters to her in so " busy a season," 
and the comfort and hope thereby afforded her ^ ; and that the 
secretary consulted with Mr. Bertie, and valued his opinion, is 

1 William Stanley. 

2 Richard Bertie to Sir W. Cecil, State Paper Office (Domestic), 1568. 
2 Burghley Papers, British Museum, Lansdowne MSS., No. 11, art. 5. 



THE queen's letters. 43 



evident from the annexed reply to his enquiries on a political, or 
rather perhaps a financial subject. It is necessary, however, to 
preface it with some explanation of the causes which induced the 
Queen to make the demand it treats of, and which her own 
letter to the Lord Privy Seal, dated 1569, will best supply: 

" Elizabeth. 
" Trusty and well-beloved, we greet you well. Forasmuch as 
we have, by advice of our council, determined to require of cer- 
tain of our loving subjects, being able thereto, certain sums of 
money, by way of loan, for the space of twelve months ; for 
which purpose we have thought meet to address our special 
letters under our privy seal to the said persons ; our will and 
pleasure is, that you having the custody of our privy seal, shall 
by warrant hereof cause to be written, and sealed with our said 
privy seal, such and so many letters as hereafter in form is 
expressed ; and the names of the several persons, with the sums 
of money limited and appointed. And this shall be your suffi- 
cient warrant for the same." 

Next follows a copy of the " special letters " here alluded to. 

" By the Queen. 
" Trusty and well-beloved, we greet you well. Considering 
your natural duty to us, and earnest good-will to the defence and 
maintenance of the honour and surety of our realm and subjects in 
these troublesome times, wherein all our neighbours are in arms ; 
and therewith understanding the ability that God hath given you. 
We have by advice of our council made a determination to re- 
ceive of you (as of sundry other our loving subjects) by way of 

loan, the sum of , to be certainly repaid again unto you 

or your executors and assigns, at or before the end of three 

g2 



44 



BERTIE S REPLY TO CECIL. 



months next after the delivery thereof to our use. Wherefore 
we earnestly require you by these presents, to deliver the said 
sum of money for our use to our trusty and well-beloved Sir 
William Garrard, Knight, Alderman of our city of London, or to 
his deputy, to be authorised by his hand and seal. And these 
our letters of privy seal, subscribed by the said Sir William Gar- 
rard, or his sufficient deputy, confessing the receipt thereof, shall 
be always sufficient to bind us, our heirs, and successors, to 
make due repayment, as above is said, at or before the end of the 
twelve months, to be accounted from the day of the payment by 
you made. And because we have at this time made full account 
of the satisfaction of this our so reasonable a request, we require 
you not to fail herein, but within ten days after the delivery of 
this our warrant unto you, to make ready payment. Given 
under our privy seal, at our manor of Greenwich, the — of May, 
1569, the eleventh year of our reign." 

To facilitate and smooth the difficulties attending this demand 
on the part of the Queen, the secretary Cecil hit upon an expe- 
dient, which he laid before Mr. Bertie, from whom he received 
the following answer : 



Mr. Bertie to Secretary Cecil. 

" The more I consider of your discourse, the more, without 
dissimulation, I like of it, and so I think will every good sub- 
ject, and the Prince specially ; for if there be present need of 
treasure, (which now without Parliament can not be had but by 
way of loan,) this is an apter remedy. For as imperious loans 
cannot but be grievous to indiscreet subjects, so the repayment 
may be unpleasant to the Prince. The necessity and these two 
griefs are cured with this one salve. The Prince here is not 



made the borrower, but God and our natural country, whereunto 
all men bear natural devotion, the mother of liberal alms. If any 
be found unnatural, yet, by privy seal, the treasure laid up for a 
stranger, may be brought forth to the service of the common 
mother, our country. 

" As this order directeth very well for the most wealthy, so 
the husbandman of our plough-land in his vocation is not the 
poorest, and artificers in towns of mean wealth may meanly help. 
A general mischief must have a general remedy. These fail as 
the justices in every shire stir, which have commonly some inte- 
rest in their bottom. No great matter among these to pick out 
a . . fifteen of good will, payable only by persons wealthy in 
bestial, little of much, and the manner of payment familiar; and 
the perverse in this rank shall be by shame constrained to con- 
tribute with their goods. 

" Though the manner of proceeding very well by you in 
degrees set forth, may not well be uttered ; yet considering what 
length of time it requireth, and how near the peril is, better it 
were to run a shorter course, than to run too short of the whole 
purpose. Her Majesty intendeth a progress, which will let 
somewhat, so that the special noblemen and gentlemen can not 
so conveniently be called up. 

" The matter of itself is to such persons (as ought therein to 
be employed) so plausible, as they need the less special per- 
suasion by mouth of the counsel, albeit the same should much 
prevail. If time permitted, the articles and oath first begun at 
the counsel, may from thence with the whole plot and sufficient 
commission pass in the country ; and to avoid jealousy that may 
grow in estate by exception of persons, to make the Bishop of 
every diocese the chief and special instruments. 




" The Bishop to receive two commissions, whereof one for 
himself to deal with the clergy and with such nobility as by 
opinion are to be dealt withal ; the other commission directed to 
four head gentlemen, to be delivered by the Bishop, taking the 
oaths to deal with persons of lower degree. 

" The Bishop and these four to use mutual advices ; and the 
Bishop out of the clergy, and the four head gentlemen out of the 
temporality, to choose assistants ; the Bishop to deal with knights 
left out of the commission ; the Prince to direct her letters to 
the nobility for their good assistance both to the Bishop and the 
four head gentlemen, lest they conceive amiss, being not used in 
this service, which for the tediousness of the same is committed 
to men of smaller quality. 

" It greatly importeth that by some policy, the force of men, 
as well as of this treasure, may be under the direction of assured 
men, lest what the bee hath gathered, the drone devour. If I 
weary you with these impertinent sentences, take you the blame 
with the pain, for that you set me on work. 

" Yours most assuredly at commandment, 

" R. Bertie." 



" To the Honourable Sir William 
Cecil, Knight, Chief Secretary 




to the Queen's Majesty '." 



^ On another occasion Mr. Bertie complains of the quarrel- 

^ For these letters see Haynes's State Papers, p. 518. For the emblem 
of the bee, see the Statutes of Corpus Christi College, Oxford. 

2 Burghley Papers, British Museum, Lansdowne MSS., No. 11, art. 5. — 
Ibid. No. 21, art. 56. 



some behaviour of the Earl of Kent^ ; and informs Cecil, that 
such had been his contumelious speeches and behaviour, that he 
had with difficulty refrained his servants from taking revenge. 
He does not enter on the cause of quarrel, but his expressions as 
to the manner in which he intended to act, are forcible, and rather 
well chosen: "I intend," he says, "to wear out my lord's 
malice with patience ; but if that way fail me, I must prepare a 
rough wedge for a rough knot, for I cannot perceive (besides 
your lordship and another) that many others have regard to 
small fire sparks, until they grow out into dangerous flames." 

There is one rather little interesting by-plot, in which the 
Duchess only seems to have been engaged ; indeed, it has all the 
marks of a truly feminine project, and of having been designed 
with a woman's and a mother's wit. It seems that Cecil had 
made a marriage between his daughter and the young Earl of 
Oxford, which had turned out very unhappily, so that they were 
now parted, and their little daughter so completely estranged 
from its father, that he could have passed without recognising it. 
The Duchess writes to Cecil, to say that she and Lady Mary<*» 
Vere, Lord Oxford's sister ^, had consulted together how they 
could interest the parent in his child ; and that provided he 
(Cecil) had no objection, they thought of conveying it to her 
house, bringing it into his presence, without making him aware 
who it was, and watching to see how nature would work in him 
to like it, and tell him after it was his own ^. Without knowing 

^ This must have been Henry, Earl of Kent, brother of Reginald, who 
married the daughter of Richard Bertie. 

2 Afterwards wife of the Duchess's son. Peregrine Bertie, Lord Wil- * 
loughby. 

Burghley Papers, British Museum, Lansdowne MSS., No. 25, art. 27- 



the result, and though all these transactions and the actors are so 
long since passed away, one can hardly help wishing the Duchess 
success in such a pious project. 

Once more we find Mr. Bertie at Kenilworth, during the 
memorable visit of Elizabeth to that splendid residence of the 
Earl of Leicester ; but as he sought her there on an especial 
affair of his own, it will be necessary to go back a little in the 
order of events, to explain the cause of his so doing. 

It appears that previously to this time, Richard Bertie had laid 
claim to the style and title of Lord Willoughby of Eresby, in 
right of his wife, founding his pretensions on many well-known 
precedents, especially on some respecting this very barony of 
Willoughby, and on a decree made by Henry the Eighth, " when 
it was concluded," says Richard Bertie in a letter to Burghley, 
that although for the future no husband of a baroness should 
without especial grace use the title of baron, yet that in case 
where there is issue of the marriage, the law doth yield them 
especial grace so to do, for the term of their life, and claims it 
as their right by the following words ; ' Livery is a kind of 
grace, yet, such as by law, the Prince is to yield to the sub- 
ject.' " 

In the month of April, 1572 \ Mr. Bertie wrote to Lord 
Burghley, hoping that having laid a " good foundation in this 
matter, he would build it up to perfection," and sending a col- 
lection of the names of such as had " in the right of their wives 
enjoyed titles of honour," though he says " you required but a 
few names, yet I send many, because few are easily taken from 
many." 

^ Original letter in the State Paper Office, Heraldic Papers, 1100 to 1601. 
See also Collins on Baronies. 



DEBATE ON THE CLAIM. 49 



It was plain that Richard Welles, Richard Hastings, Chris- 
topher Lord Willoughby, and W. Lord Willoughby, who held 
the style and title of Barons Willoughby, were not created by 
writs at the moment they assumed their honours, because they 
took their places after the antiquity of the Baronies of Willoughby 
and Eresby \ 

The matter was first debated between four of the judges then 
in London ; but the circumstances being rather uncommon, the 
attorney-general, Gilbert Gerrard, tells Burghley, that although 
they thought Mr. Bertie could not challenge to have the title 
after his wife's decease, they wished to confer with the rest of the 
judges, and were of opinion that the Queen would do well to 
consult such of her nobility as she should think fit, and use also 
the opinion of the officers of arms ^. In the ensuing month of 
May (probably after the intended conference), the attorney- 
general appears to have taken a different view of the matter ; 
and in another letter to Lord Burghley, tells him he thinks it 
" very orderly to declare Mr. Bertie to bear the title and name 
of the barony during his life, and then to remain to the heirs of 
the Duchess." He contends that this arrangement would be no 
real detriment to the son, seeing the property was in the hands of 
the father, and that probably the son could never hold the dig- 
nity whilst he lived ^ ; besides, that it would be all the more 
honourable to him, that his parent should use it for life *. 



1 Lansdowne MSS. 861, British Museum. 

2 State Paper Office, Heraldic Papers, 1100 to 1601. 

3 In this the attorney-general was mistaken, for Peregrine Bertie did hold 
the barony of Willoughby during the life-time of his father, Richard. 

* State Paper Office, Heraldic Papers, 1109 to 1601. Dated May 3rd, 

1572. 

II 



I 

50 RICHARD BERTIE AT KENILWORTII. 



The matter being submitted to the Queen by the judges, it 
was referred to the judgment of three commissioners ; namely, 
Lord Burghley, Thomas Earl of Sussex, and Robert Earl of 
Leicester. On the motion of the latter, it was decided to hear 
the case, a decision well pleasing to Mr. Bertie ; as, said he, the 
Queen was diversely informed on the matter, and he wished to 
make no claim inconsistent with her good pleasure. He hoped, 
he added, to have competent judges, it not being a matter of 
common law, and specially Lord Burghley \ 

These three commissioners appeared satisfied on the subject, 
and none offered any opposition to his claim, but their answer 
was, that they would report to her Majesty; the Earl of Sussex, 
however, added, that he thought the said Richard Bertie might 
use the title during the life of his wife ^. 

Mr. Bertie was directed to wait upon the Queen at Theobalds, 
the Lord Treasurer's house ; but it seems the moment was not 
convenient, as she was then entering on her progress, and he was 
referred to Kenilworth Castle, where accordingly he found him- 
self with the rest of the court. The splendid reception with 
which she was greeted, and the magnificence of the entertain- 
ment provided for her, are well known, and have been fully 
described ; and if any thing was wanting to work up an interest 
in the by-gone days of courtly grandeur, the master hand of 
Walter Scott has touched the chord, and awakened all our sym- 
pathies. It was on the eve of Elizabeth's departure from Kenil- 
worth, that before she took her leave, and whilst Bertie was 

1 Original letter of R. Bertie to Lord Burghley, State Paper Office, 
Heraldic Papers. See Appendix, art. Z, for the letters extracted from the 
Heraldic Papers, State Paper Office. 

2 Harleian MSS. British Museum, 6141. 



THE queen's acknowledgment. 51 



standing by, the commissioners again appealed to her on the 
subject of his claim. She listened, and then perceiving him, ad- 
dressed him in Latin thus: "Bertie, nunc tua res agitur;" and 
then assuming that courtesy of demeanour which she could well 
adopt, when she thought the occasion a fitting one, she pointedly 
and graciously added, " quod defertur, non aufettur." In con- 
clusion she observed that she was now on her journey, " that 
after her progress she would resolve ^" 

There is still preserved amongst Lord Burghley's papers in 
the British Museum, the draft of a " decree for Mr. Bertie to be 
Lord Willoughby of Willoughby and Eresbie," which grants him 
full permission to use the name and style, not only during the 
life of the Duchess, but also after her decease, so long as any 
heir of theirs remained alive. This document bears no signature, 
nor was it carried into effect : it is dated 1580 ^. 

The Queen's gracious acknowledgment of his claim appears, 
however, to have been perfectly satisfactory to Mr. Bertie ; in- 
deed the Harleian MS., from which the chief part of the fore- 
going relation has been taken, alleges, that having made it clear 
to the Queen that he had set up no unjust claim, and having 
established his son's right whilst he averred his own (though he 
did not use the style), he felt perfectly contented, and forbore to 
press the matter any further. 

In all probability the closing years of his life were devoted to 
those literary pursuits and pleasures which had been interrupted 
by the inconveniences and dangers of exile. That he was re- 
nowned for virtue, learning, and especially for proficiency in the 



^ Harleian and Lansdowne MSS., British Museum, Harleian, 6141. 
2 Lansdowne MSS., British Museum, No. 29, art. 75. 

H 2 



study of languages, and an encourager of literature and learned 
men, appears from the expressions used in the dedication to him 
of a book, now very rare, and translated from the Latin of 
Petrarch, by Thomas Twyne, in 1579. The work, which is 
entitled " Physic against Fortune," is placed by its author under 
his auspices, as being " no mean personage of this our realm of 
England," favoured by the countenance of a virtuous and loving 
Queen, and likely by the reputation of his name to make it 
more acceptable. 

He appears also to have made some historical collections, ex- 
tant in his own handwriting in the time of the good Bishop and 
great Lincolnshire collector. Dr. Saunderson, who transcribed 
them from the original, styling them " Extracts from Collectanea 
of Richard Bartue, ancestor of the Earl of Lindsey, written with 
his own hand ^" 

Here, then, ends the historical account of Richard Bertie and 
the Duchess of Suffolk. Her earthly career was closed, a. d. 
1580 ; he only survived her two years, dying at the age of sixty- 
four, A. D. 1582, at Bourne, in Lincolnshire, the place where 
Cecil was born. His dying bed was attended by his son Pere- 
grine, Lord Willoughby, who, by his own account, returned 



1 See Wood's MSS., in Ashmolean Library at Oxford, No. 8563 : « 22nd 
August, 1676. Mr. Henr. Symons, secretary to Barlow, Bishop of Lincohi, 
lent me a vol. in folio, written by Dr. Saunderson, Bishop of Lincoln, en- 
dorsed 'Cartse X.' the contents of which follow." Amongst others are, 
" Miscellanea ex libris et chartis in custodia Com. de Lindsey ;" *' Extracts 
from Collectanea of Richard Bartue, ancestor of the Earl of Lindsey, written 
with his own hand, p. 706 ;" " Evidence some time belonging to the Lord 
Willoughby of Eresby." Unfortunately these MSS. are not now to be 
found, and the originals were probably destroyed during the Rebellion, when 
the papers at Grimsthorpe were ransacked. See Appendix, art. AA. 



HIS CHARGE TO HIS SON. 



53 



a little before his end from the Low Countries, where it would 
seem he had accompanied the Earl of Leicester and the Admiral 
on their journey thither with the Duke of Alen^on. " Finding 
him," writes Lord Willoughby \ "in extreme pain, he com- 
manded me in these terms : ' Son, I have passed that little land 
I have, you having no issue male (as then I had not), to the next 
of my name, Bertie, as the words of my will carrieth ; but * * * 
is, that Stephen Bertie^ should have the same. And therefore I 
charge you, before God and his holy angels, to see the same so 
conveyed.' This I sware unto, as I was bound in duty of a son 
to a kind loving father, very weak, who died within few hours 
after this request." It is remarkable that this filial obligation 
afterwards involved Lord Willoughby in some difficulty ; and 
after the lapse of some years, namely in the year 1594; for, as in 
consequence of it he delayed to prove his father's testament, this 
fact was brought against him by one who claimed more than his 
due from an alleged legacy therein. *' If," piously adds the son, 
" I prove his will, I falsify my oath, which I would not do for 
all the lands I have by him, or possess otherwise ^." 



^ See a paper written by him, August 25th, 1594, which, with the others 
quoted in this transaction, is from copies taken by the Honourable Charles 
Bertie Percy, from letters in the possession of the late Lady Willoughby at 
Grimsthorpe. 

2 His nephew, or perhaps cousin. 

2 The claimant in this case was one Thomas Cecil of Ednam, in the 
county of Lincoln, who asserted his right to a house and lands, granted (as 
Lord Willoughby proved) by Richard Bertie to a certain Cheeseman and 
his wife for life only. It would seem that Cecil married the widow of 
Cheeseman, and attempted to keep possession of this property after her 
decease, which Willoughby resisted, and ejected him from. Cecil, in his 
resentment, set up an accusation before the Lords of the Council, of his 
having produced on the occasion to the Archbishop of Canterbury a forged 



54 



PORTRAIT. 



On the portrait of Richard Bertie at Grimsthorpe in Lincoln- 
shire, is inscribed the following legend : 



Cendre quoique deguise 
toujours cendre. 



will, of which " atrocious proceeding " Willonghby complained in a letter 
addressed to Lord Burghley, adding that his "falsehood " was convinced "by 
his own testimony, and otherwise ;" and that he " desired he might make 
him satisfaction in the county, by submitting himself in open places here ; 
otherwise for his own reputation's sake, he should be enforced to prosecute 
him at the common law, a thing he had hitherto forborne, because it might 
appear how far he was from wishing extremity or violence to a man of his 
sort." Two days after, the 25th of August, 1594, Lord Willoughby, in his 
" Answers to the scandal of forgery," makes the following statement : " The 
will is written, every word, with my father's own hand, which I suppose my 
Lord Treasurer knoweth very well, subscribed by him, and sealed with his 
seal, avowed to be his true and last will upon his death-bed, and sundry will 
be deposed yet living, that it was so ; to the true copy thereof was Mr. Ed- 
mond Hall's hand, who was present a little before his death, and heard what 
he enjoined me ; besides two other preachers, namely, Holden and Bradlye, 
sundry other gentlemen and persons of his household, as Henry Carew, 
Christopher Hamon. I think Sir John Winkfield is not unacquainted with 
it." On account of his false charges and violent conduct, Cecil was by the 
Lords of the Council committed to prison. Afterwards arose much disturb- 
ance and various tumults in the town of Stamford, and Willoughby had to 
complain of offensive language, especially from one Morris Tomsone, the 
Treasurer's clerk of the kitchen, who told the alderman of Stamford, if he 
had laid the Lord Willoughby by the heels, he should have been borne out. 
Lord Willoughby then lying sick in his bed. This affair appears to have 
been quite a fresh quarrel, and Lord Burghley wrote to Willoughby to de- 
mand an explanation of the cause. He then took the matter in hand against 
these disturbers of the peace, and addressed a letter to the alderman of 
Stamford in these words : " These disorders I cannot but show myself 
grieved withal, in respect it may be supposed that they are committed 
by my countenance, wherein I am wronged for any thing that proceedeth 
from me, directly or indirectly ; for, in causes of justice andmaintenance of 



MONUMENTAL INSCRIPTION. 



56 



There are also full-length pictures of him and the Duchess at 
Powderham Castle. 

He and his lady were both buried in Spilsby Church, Lincoln- 
shire, and on the base of their monument is this inscription : 

Sepulchrum D. Ricardi Bertie et D. Catherinse Ducissse 
SufFolkise, Baronissse de Willoby de Eresby, conivg. ista 
obiit xix Septerab. 1580. Ille obiit ix Aprilis, 1582 ^. 

On the top of the base stood three whole-length figures sup- 
peace, I will not countenance any so to do any wrong, but shall countenance 
his correction. And so I require you to accept of me, and as this cause 
shall require, so to reform that hath been done amiss, and to advertise me 
of your actions herein ; for I desire to keep friendship with my Lord, as his 
Lordship professeth the like to me. April 17, 1595." — From the copies 
taken by the Honourable Charles Bertie Percy of the letters at Grims- 
thorpe. 

^ Richard Bertie is honourably mentioned, and numbered by Parkhurst 
with divers other eminent men, " heroes of the day." — Johannis Parkhursti 
Ludicra sive Epigrammata Juvenilia. ' 4to. Lond. ap. Joan. Day, 1573, p. 55. 



DE QUIBUSDAM VIRIS ADMODUM PR^CLARIS. 

Si qui sunt Christi quos gloria tangit lesu, 

Honor suique principis : 
Hii sunt eximii heroes Seymorus uterque, 

Uterque clarus Marchio. 
Dudlaei, Hastingi, Russelli, Herbertus, Havardi, 

Ratclyffi, Clynton, Graii. 
Rossus, Wentworthi, Carseus, tuque Cobhame, 

Northus, Rychus, Montjoius. 
Baconus, Darceeus, Morysinus, vosque Knolaei, 

CsecilKus, Cokus, Wrothus. 
Sadlerus, Croftus, Mildmsei, Smythus, Hobaei, 

Chsecus, Wilsonus, Berteus. 
Hos 6 Christe velis sancta defendere dextra, 

Et quot cupiunt Regi bene. 



56 



MONUMENTAL INSCRIPTION. 



porting escutcheons, and on the base itself are eight more 
escutcheons. The front is supported by three pillars. In six 
divisions are engraved passages of Scripture, and at the bottom 
are five escutcheons. 



SUCCESSION OF PEREGRINE. 



57 



PEREGRINE BERTIE, 
BARON WILLOUGHBY DE ERESBY, 

Succeeded to his mother's honours after her death, and on that 
of his father, to their vast possessions. " He was," says Sir 
Robert Naunton, " one of the Queen's first swordsmen, a great 
master in the art military, and descended from the ancient ex- 
tract of the Bertues, but more ennobled on his mother's side, to 
whom the baronies of Willoughby, Bee, and Eresby pertained," 
besides the barony of Welles, and the vast inheritance of Robert 
de UfFord, Earl of Suffolk. She was also descended, through 
the house of Maltravers, alias Arundell and Fitzalan, from the 
royal race of Plantagenet. 



[Sigillum Johannis Maltravers.] 




[Eliz. de Latymer Uxoris Radulphi 
de Ufford ] 




26 Edward treis. 



An. 39. E. 3. 



58 



PLACE OF HIS BIRTH. 



THE SEAL 



OF 



ROBERT, 



LORD OF 




WILLOUGHBY, 



BEKE, 



AND 



ERESBY. 



The said Peregrine Bertie was born, as his patent of naturaliza- 
tion^ (granted August 2nd, 1559) sets forth, in the city of Lower 
Wesel, in the duchy of Cleves. 

"I^^jjina Om'ibz ad quos &c. Salfm Cum dilcus & fidelis 
subditus n r Ricardus Bertye Armig''. licentia sororis nfe Marie 
Regine nup~r Anghe prius &c. in scriptis licite obtenta, in partes 
tf ismarinas p~fectus sit, et in civitate Wessalie inferioris in Du- 
catu Clevensi, ex p'dil'ca nfa et fideli subdita nostra, suaqj legi- 
tima conjuge, Katherina Ducissa Suffi, ibidem una cum illo 
ft mandatum & consensum su m existen & comorante filiu no~ie 
Peregrinu genu it etc." 

The above account of the birth of Peregrine at Wesel, during 
the refuge of his parents in that place from religious persecution, 
is confirmed by a copy of an entry, in the registry of that city, 
concerning his birth, which took place there on the 12th of 
October, 1555 : 



1 See the patent in the Rolls Chapel (already referred to) : " Secunda 
pars Paten, de anno .... Elizabeth primo. m. ?•" " D Indigen Peregrino 
Bertye," dated " apud Westm. sc^do die Augusti." The abbreviations of the 
original document are retained. — See Appendix, art. CC. 



HIS NATURALIZATION. 59 



" We, the burgomasters, aldermen, and coimcillors of the city 
of Wesel, in the duchy of Cleves, certify by these presents, that 
in the register of this city is found entered the following account, 
the 20th of November, 1555. 

" 'Anno a partu Virgineo restitutae salutis per Christum mil- 
lesimo quingentesimo quinquagesimo quinto, qui fiiit annus a 
mundi exordio quinquies millesimus, quingentisimus vigesimus 
tertius ab innovata vero Doctrina Evangelij per Dominum Mar- 
tinum Lutherum trigesimus octavus, die Saturni qui erat duo- 
decimus mensis Octobris, Illustrissima Domina Catharina, Ba- 
ronissa de Willoughby, Ducissa SufFolciae, in Anglicano regno. 
Uxor Illustrissimi Principis, Domini Richardi Bertie d'Eresby, 
ex Anglia, in hac nostra Urbe Vesaliensi Ducatus Clevensis 
(Divina obstetricante gratia) Filium peperit, qui Die Lunse a 
partu proximo decimo quarto, videlicet, ejusdem mensis in tem- 
plo nostro suburbano (vulgo Upter Mathena) Sacrosancto Bap- 
tismate per Henricum Bomelium ejusdem Ecclesiae suscepto 
Peregrinus vocatus est ; eo quod in terra Peregrina, pro con- 
solatione exilij sui Piis Parentibus a Domino donatus sit, 

" ' Postulatum est referri in Annales.' 

" In the testimony of which we have put the common seal of 
our city hereunto, at the request of the Honourable Mr. Charles 
Bertie, Envoy Extraordinary from his Majesty of Great Britain 
to the Electors, and other princes of Germany, at his passage 
through this city; and have caused our clerk to sign the same, 
in the place of our secretary lately deceased. 

" Given at Wesel the 18th day of January, 1681. 

" GoDF. NisEN, Secretary defuncti 

"Amanuensis." 
I 2 





This same Mr. Charles Bertie, in 
1681, also put up an inscription to the 
memory of his ancestor, the said Pere- 
grine, in the church of St. Willebrode, 
in Wesel, with these arras. 



The circumstance of the baptism of Peregrine in the church 
porch, or entrance to the church, has led to a mistaken opinion 
that he was actually born there. It was on their first arrival at 
Wesel, early in the year 1555, that his parents took shelter in 
the porch ; and it was not till October, 1555, that his birth took 
place. The fact of the baptism only is attested by these docu- 
ments. He received the name of Peregrine from the circum- 
stance of his being brought into the world during the wanderings 
of his father and mother in foreign parts, and was naturalized on 
their return to England, in the reign of Elizabeth. His mother, 
it seems, was earnestly desirous that he should be entrusted to 
the care of Cecil, Lord Burghley ; and he was accordingly 
brought up chiefly under that statesman's eye, and made great 
progress in learning and courtly accomplishments. He appears, 
in a letter, written in Latin when he was only thirteen years of 
age, A. D. 1568, to have gratefully acknowledged the Treasurer's 
care ^ ; and at the early age of seventeen we find him on the eve 
of marriage, or at least of (what often preceded by several years 
the actual solemnization) a contract of marriage with a young 
lady, who afterwards became the wife of Charles Stuart, Earl of 
Lennox, (brother of Henry, Lord Darnley,) and the mother of 



^ Strype's Annals of the Reformation, eel. Oxf. vol. ii. part ii. p. 400. 



HIS EDUCATION. 61 



Lady Arabella Stuart. She was the daughter of Sir William 
Cavendish, whose widow (the celebrated Elizabeth of Hard- 
wicke) re-married the Earl of Shrewsbury ; and the Queen's 
discontent at the match called forth the following letter, ad- 
dressed by him to her Majesty, in the year 1574 : 

*'And, may it further please your Majesty, I understand of 
late your Majesty's displeasure is sought against my wife, for 
marriage of her daughter to my Lady Lennox's son. I must 
confess to your Majesty, as true it is, it was dealt in suddenly, 
and without my knowledge ; but, as I dare undertake and insure 
to your Majesty, for my wife, she, finding her daughter dis- 
appointed of young Barte, where she hoped, and the other young 
gentleman was inclined to love with a few days' acquaintance, 
did her best to further her daughter to this match, without 
having therein any other intent or respect than with reverent 
duty towards your Majesty she ought \" 

In the course of his courtly education Peregrine had learned, 
however, at one time, in 1577, to be a little wild, a circumstance 
which excited the anxious apprehensions of the Duchess. In 
that year, not desiring to expose him any longer to the possible 
contamination of a court, she wrote to Lord Burghley, " intreat- 
ing him for God's sake to give the young man, her son, good 
counsel to bridle his youth, &;c. that he might go down to his 
father while she trusted all was well ^." Had she lived to see 
the manhood of the son for whom she now dreaded the dangers 
of the world, and of an idle and useless life, how would she have 

^ The rough draft of this letter is now in the Heralds' College. (Talbot's 
Letters, vol. F. f. 603.) See also Mr. Hunter's valuable history of Hallam- 
shire, page 69, letter anno 1574. 

2 Strype, p. 400. 



62 



HIS CLAIM. 



rejoiced to find him on all occasions evincing, both by words and 
actions, a desire to serve his Sovereign rather by his sword, and 
by deeds of valour in the field, than to bask in the sunshine of 
her favour, in the unprofitable character of a courtier ! Many 
years after this expression of her feelings, and when not only 
herself, but this object of her maternal hopes and fears had 
ceased to play his part on the theatre of the world, Lloyd, in 
speaking of Peregrine Bertie, uses these remarkable words : 
*' This was the stout souldier that brooking not the assiduity and 
obsequiousness of the court, was wont to say, ' that he was none 
of the reptilia, which could creep on the ground; and that a 
court became a souldier of good skill and a great spirit, as a bed 
of down would one of the Tower lyons ^' " 

On the decease of his mother, in 1580, he claimed and as- 
sumed the title of Willoughby, and at her funeral wore his 
mourning apparel in all points as a baron. Strype thus makes 
mention of his claim ^ : " I hav^," says he, " a note here to make 
of the very ancient and noble family of the Berties, to which the 
barony of Eresby pertained." He also observes that this was " a 
barony before the Conquest," and " belonged to the see of Dur- 
ham. And that at the Conquest it was by the Conqueror's con- 
sent given to Pinzon or Pinchon, who thereby became Lord of 
Eresby" . . . "his tenure being to serve the Bishop on the day 
of his consecration in his office of shewer." The daughter of 
this Pinzon (or as he was commonly called, Hugo Dapifer,) 
married Walter Bee, and, being also his heir, brought the barony 
into that family, from whence by marriage it passed into that of 
the Willoughby s, ennobling them, as they subsequently did the 



^ Lloyd's Worthies. 



2 Annals of the Reformation, p. 398. 



ADMISSION OF HIS CLAIM. 



63 



Berties, and as the Berties since ennobled the Burrells^, who 
have taken the name and arms of Willoughby. It is remarkable 
that the Berties, in all their alliances with heiresses of great 
note and fortune, never relinquished their paternal name and 
coat, which they have continued to bear from generation to gene- 
ration, adding only to their arms the quarterings which they have 
obtained by marriage. 

The claim of Peregrine Bertie to this barony was admitted in 
form two months after his mother's decease, while his father was 
still alive ; and he took his seat amongst the peers accordingly. 
The value he put upon it, not as a mere empty honour, but 
as the tenure on his part of a jewel in the Queen's crown, which 
called him to an especial " service," is beautifully expressed in a 
letter to Lord Burghley. Elizabeth, ever sparing of preferment, 
delayed for a short period the admission even of his undoubted 
right, which caused him to apply to the Lord Treasurer in these 
words : " That he found himself so overcome with just pensive- 
ness, that he could not presently write so fully as the Treasurer's 
person and his own cause required, by commending it to his 
honourable and friendly defence, &c. And his chiefest care was 
that her Majesty might not be induced sincerely to interpret worse 
of his claim, than the matter ministered occasion, because he took 
the title and claim of Willoughby and Eresby." He added: 
" that the question was handled in King Henry the Eighth's 
reign ; and the right, upon claim made by Sir Christopher Wil- 
loughby, younger brother and heir male to the Lord Willoughby, 
my grandfather, was adjudged to the Duchess, my dear mother. 



1 See Horace Walpole's Letters to Sir Horace Mann, concluding series, 
vol. iii. p. 161. (Dated July 9th, 1779-) Wraxall's Memoirs of his own 
Times, vol. i. p. 19. 




" Now if my right, after sentence given ; after so long seizing 
and a dying seized of the Duchess, shall be called in question, I 
must needs think myself an abortive, and born in a most unfor- 
tunate hour ; that her Majesty had rather spoil her crown of a 
barony, than that I should be the person should do her that ser- 
vice. But in case your honour shall, of your friendly disposition 
towards me and justice, safely pilot me over this tempestuous 
sea, you shall confidently account that thereby you have erected 
a pillar in your own building, which shall never shrink or fail you 
for any stone whatsoever. And thus reposing myself wholly 
on your honourable goodness, with hasty prayer for your so 
good estate, I humbly take my leave. From Willoughby 
House. 

" Your Lordship's humbly and assuredly at 

commandment, 

" Peregrine Bertie \" 

Peregrine Bertie's proofs of his claim to the barony of Wil- 
loughby having been allowed by the commissioners, (who sat a 
second time,) and satisfactory to the Queen, she signified her 
royal pleasure that he should be admitted to its honours ; and 
accordingly he was formally installed therein at the Star Cham- 
ber, on the 11th of November, 1580, being by the commissioners 
placed at the table above many other barons, according to his 
precedence. They all drank to him by the name of Lord Wil- 
loughby ; and on Monday the 16th of January following, 1581, 
he took his seat in the House of Lords '\ 

^ Strype's Annals of the Reformation. 

2 Of which the following entry appears on the Journals : " Hodie retorna- 



THE ARMS OF BERTIE, WILLOUGHBY, BEKE, & UFFORD^ 



[Bertie.] 




[Waioughby.] 




[Beke.] 




[UfFord.] 




See Glover's Heraldic Collections, British Museum. 



THE DUKE OF ANJOU. 65 



In the following year, 1582, we hear of his first employment^ 
in the Queen's service, who commanded him, with the Earl of 
Leicester and other noblemen and knights, to escort the Duke of 
Anjou back to Antwerp. This Duke of Anjou, who had then 
been resident for three months in England, was one of the nu- 
merous persons proposed as a suitable match for our renowned 
Elizabeth ; and she appears to have been willing to dismiss him 
with honour at least, though she did not (perhaps could not) 
bring herself in the end, after some sleepless nights, to accept 
his hand. Accordingly, she accompanied him as far as Canter- 
bury, and caused Lord Willoughby, Lord Leicester, and others, 
to escort him to Antwerp. Before the death of his mother, Lord 
Willoughby had married the Lady Mary de Vere, daughter of 
John de Vere, sixteenth Earl of Ox- 
ford, and sister and heir of the whole 
blood to Edward, the seventeenth 
Earl of Oxford. By this alliance 
he brought into his family, the he- 
reditary office of Lord Great Cham- 
berlain of England, which the De 
Veres had enioyed since the time of ^ ^ ^^ °™^ ^ ^ ^^^^' "^ 

•' -^ right of their office 2,] 

Henry the First, having come into 

turn fuit breve, quo Peregrinus Bartye, Dominus de Wdloughbie, Filius et 
Hseres KatherincB, Ducissee Saff., Filiae et Hseredis W'dlielmi WiUoughhie, 
nuper Domini WiUoughhie, prsesenti Parliamento interesse summonitus est, 
qui admissus est ad suum Pre-eminentise sedendi in Parliamento locum, 
salvo jure alieno." In the list of peers present on that day, he is placed in 
the room of Lord Zouch, whose name is omitted ; but in the subsequent 
lists he is properly placed next after Lord Zouch. 

^ Camden's Elizabeth. 

2 Vide Harleian MSS., 1073 ; and Retrospective Review, vol. ix. p. 157- 

K 




this country with the Conqueror, their ancestor being then Earl 
of Guisnes. 

" ^ This great honour," said the Lord Chief Justice Crewe, in 
the time of Charles I., when addressing the House of Lords on a 
claim respecting it, ** this high and noble dignity hath continued 
ever since in the remarkable surname of De Vere, by so many 
ages, descents, and generations, as no other kingdom can pro- 
duce such a peer in one and the self-same name and title. 

" I find in all this length of time, but two attainders of this 
noble family, and those in stormy and tempestuous times, when 
the government was unsettled, and the kingdom in competition. 

" I have laboured to make a covenant with myself that affec- 
tion may not press upon judgment ; for I suppose there is no 
man that hath any apprehension of gentry, or nobleness, but 
his affection stands to the continuance of so noble a name and 
house ; and would take hold of a twig or twine thread to uphold 
it. And yet time hath its revolutions : there must be a period 
and an end to all temporal things, finis rerum, an end of names 
and dignities, and whatsoever is terrene, and why not of De 
Vere ? for where is Bohun 1 where is Mowbray ? where is Mor- 
timer ? Nay, which is more and most of all, where is Planta- 
genet ? They are entombed in the urns and sepulchres of mor- 
tality. And yet let the name and dignity of De Vere stand so 
long as it pleaseth God." 

These words of the Lord Chief Justice were remarkably veri- 
fied in the year 1702, when the male line of this great family 
became extinct. The representatives in the female line besides 
Robert, son of Peregrine Bertie, Lord Willoughby, to whom the 



^ Cruise on Diguities. 



EMBASSY TO DENMARK. 



67 



chamberlainship was adjudged, are the Duke of Northumber- 
land, through the Lord Latimer, who married Dorothy de Vere ; 
the descendants of Sir Edmund Knightley, who married Ursula 
de Vere, grand-daughter of John, twelfth Earl of Oxford (be- 
headed, the first of Edward the Fourth) ; the Duke of Athol 
and the Earl of Dunmore, through the Earl of Derby ; the Earl 
of Abingdon through the Lord Norreys ; the Earl of Mont- 
gomery, now of Pembroke ^ ; and the Duke of St. Alban's, from 
the marriage of his ancestor with the daughter of Albericus ^ 
twentieth and last Earl of Oxford. 

To return to Peregrine, Lord Willoughby. In the year 1582 
he was appointed ambassador to Frederick the Second, king of 
Denmark. ^ He took leave of the Queen at Greenwich, and on 
the 22nd of July landed at Elsinore. The object of his errand 
was to invest his Majesty with the Order of the Garter, to which 
Frederick had been elected for some time. With him was joined 
in commission for this purpose Sir Gilbert Dethick, Garter King 
at Arms ; and he was also accompanied by Robert Glover, 
Somerset Herald, and a competent number of gentlemen and 
yeomen'', in all six-and-fifty persons, besides the ship's crew. 
On the same day Lord Willoughby ^, as he tells us in his narra- 



^ These three last, by descent from the three daughters of Edward, seven- 
teenth Earl of Oxford. 

2 The first as well as the last Earl of Oxford bore this Christian name. 

2 Camden's Elizabeth, Stovv's Annals, Holinshed's Chronicle. 

* Holinshed. 

^ Relation of Lord Willoughby's embassy into Denmark in his own hand, 
British Museum, Cotton MSS., Titus c. 7, ai^t. 226. It is to be remarked, 
that by an accidental error Willoughby dates his arrival at Elsinore on the 
22nd of June instead of July, a manifest mistake, since the order of the 
Privy Council, signifying the royal pleasure as to the expediting of the 

K 2 



tive of the expedition, was sought by the captain of the castle, 
whom he required to inform the king of his arrival, to which 
message a civil answer was returned. Frederick of Denmark, 
however, seems to have had a vague apprehension that in accept- 
ing this honour he should be led into some unknown or undefined 
obligation ; for on the first of August, Monsieur Dansic, the 
French ambassador, with Gerard Kantzo, on the part of the king, 
came to Lord Willoughby, intreating that he might not be called 
upon to wear the robes, and that no ceremonies in words or 
actions might be used at the investiture, further than that he 
should receive it in the name of the Father, the Son, and the 
Holy Ghost. Lord Willoughby's definition of the meaning and 
purpose of the ceremony is worthy of attention, now that such 
honours are become, in the general opinion, mere points of 
worldly distinction. "To satisfy," says he, "his misconceiving 
opinion, he was informed on what honourable terms and points it 
was grounded, the number of mighty renowned emperors, kings, 
and princes of the society ; and that the virtue thereof was but to 
unite and conjoin in virtuous and noble concord the minds of 
noble and virtuous princes to the glory of God, of their im- 
mortal renown, and common good of their estate '." The scruples 
of the Danish sovereign as to the taking of the oath, ignorant as 
he had been of its import, are not perhaps to be wondered at. 



journey of the herald who was to attend him is dated on the first of July. 
Robert Glover, alias Somerset herald, was appointed to accompany him on 
his mission to Denmark ; and from her court at Greenwich the Queen 
issued her commands to all mayors, sheriffs, &c, that he should be provided 
with relays of horses, and all things necessary, till he reached Hull, where 
he was to embark with Lord Willoughby. See Appendix, art. CC, for this 
order, now preserved in the British Museum. 

^ Lord Willoughby's Narrative, British Museum. 



SCRUPLES OF THE KING. 69 



especially as it had been hinted to him \ that Lord Willoughby's 
coming involved an intent of tying him down to " some alliance 
for the defence of the Duke of Anjou in the Low Countries, and 
thus to embark him in some dangerous action." He must, how- 
ever, have greatly feared the being over-reached by that mighty 
sovereign whom he earnestly professed to love "above all other 
princes," as he appears to have also experienced the most in- 
vincible reluctance to receive the robes appertaining to that order 
of ancient chivalry with which she desired to invest him. The 
only suspicion on his part, which can be urged as a serious one, 
was an idea he seems to have entertained that they concealed 
some papistical meaning or form. In vain was he given to un- 
derstand by Sir William Waad, who appears to have acted as 
mediator on the occasion, that " the habit was of an ancient and 
grave fashion ^," (circumstances, by-the-bye, not always con- 
sidered as a recommendation,) " very comely, and full of reve- 
rence." " It was a thing so coiitrary to his nature to have any 
strange attire or superfluities to come on his back, that he could 
by no means away with it." At length it was agreed that at the 
moment of the presentation to the king of these very obnoxious 
robes, he should pray the Lord Ambassador (Lord Willoughby) 
to hold him excused for the present from wearing them, though 
he with pleasure would accept the Collar and Garter, and the 
George. 

^ On the receipt of this concession to his scruples, the king, oji 

^ Extract of a letter from Mr. Wiliiam Waad (afterwards Sir William 
Waad, Lieutenant of the Tower) to Sir Francis Walsingham, dated Elsiuore, 
2nd August, 1 582. State Paper Office ; Denmark, vol. i. 

2 Letter of Sir William Waad, State Paper Office, Denmark, vol. i. 

^ Lord Willoughby's Narrative, British Museum. 



70 DEPUTATION TO LORD WILLOUGHBY. 

the 9th of the ensuing month of August, drew towards the 
scene of conference, and was the next day followed by his con- 
sort, attended by all the splendour of royalty. Still he seems to 
have wished to weigh well all the meaning of a commission, 
which, however intended to confer honour on him, might also 
assume the shape of a religious or political engagement ; and the 
French ambassador waited on Lord Willoughby with a request, 
that he would deliver his negotiation and all her Majesty of Eng- 
land's letters to the council, before he was admitted into the royal 
presence. With the dignity, however, of the representative of a 
sovereign, Lord Willoughby replied, that it would be most un- 
fitting in an ambassador to resign his charge to the hands of 
another, and that none but himself should present her Majesty's 
letters and commendations to the prince to whom they were 
addressed. 

' On the 11th of August, another deputation, consisting of the 
Chancellor Kaas, the Baron Doone, and Doctor Basilic, came to 
inquire of Lord Willoughby the chief points on which he had to 
treat. He replied, his first and greatest was to present her 
Majesty's "loving commendations, in witness whereof she had 
sent to honour him with the Order of the Garter ; and, secondly, 
to lay before him the complaints of certain English merchants, 
who felt aggrieved by the exaction of new tolls lately imposed 
upon them, and the representations of others who had sustained 
losses and injuries in his dominions. As, however, he was well 
aware that the Queen's intention was principally to honour, and 

1 Willoughby 's Narrative, British Museum, Cotton MSS., Titus c. 7, art. 
226. Willoughby has evidently made a mistake in the dates of his journal ; 
at one moment he calls Saturday the 12th of the month, and then Monday : 
Monday fell on the 13th. 



ACCEPTANCE OF THE ORDER. 71 

not incommode him, she had commanded him to impart the 
latter portion of these instructions to such of the king's council 
as his Majesty should appoint ; but as to the former, he begged 
to have two days' audience to acquit himself of his charge. To 
this demand the king returned an answer, signed and sealed with 
his own hand, and (the next day being Sunday) appointed Mon- 
day to receive Lord Willoughby, and the next Tuesday for the 
acceptance of the Order. 

Accordingly, on Monday, " I presented myself," says Lord 
Willoughby, "before the king." He then delivered the Queen's 
letters and messages ; and after addressing the king in a Latin 
speech ^, which was duly answered, was conducted to the pre- 
sence of his royal consort. But on the following morning 
Frederick made every preparation for the honourable and courte- 
ous reception of the English envoy ; and accepted, with great 
satisfaction, from his hands, all the badges and decorations of the 
Order, saving the robes. Lord Willoughby again demanded the 
necessary oath and protestation on his part ^, and reminded him of 
the necessity of a public testimony of his satisfaction *. He pro- 
mised his "instrument*" in lieu of the oath; and after many 
affectionate messages to the Queen of England, commanded a 
volley to be discharged of all the great shot of the castle^, and 
entertained the ambassador and his train with royal banqueting 
and a rare discharge of fireworks ^. On Thursday the 16th, they 
were invited to join in a grand hunting party and dinner, when 

' See Appendix for the speech, art. DD. 

2 Lord Willoughby's Narrative. ^ Camden's Elizabeth. 

■^ See Appendix, art. EE., for this document. 

^ Holinshed's Chronicles. 

** Lord Willoughby's Narrative, British Museum, Cotton MSS. 



72 



FAREWELL AUDIENCE. 



the king renewed all his earnest declarations of regard and esteem 
for the powerful sovereign who then swayed the British sceptre ; 
and intimated a hope that his son might continue to value her 
regard, and a wish that she might bestow upon him one of her 
royal blood in marriage. 

As is usual, however, on such occasions, it is far easier for 
princes to meet on the ground of courtesy and ceremony, than to 
obtain redress from each other for real grievances, or to come to 
decisive agreements when solid advantages are to be lost or won 
on either side. When Willoughby proceeded to the latter part 
of his commission, and to represent the exactions on the English 
merchants to the proper authorities, and they had withdrawn to 
consult together on the matter, and submit it to the king, they 
returned with an evasive reply \ an apology for not having leisure 
at the moment to consider the question ; with an expressed 
desire that it should, at a future period, be inquired into and 
remedied. As Frederick of Denmark was then departing for 
Fredericsburg, the ensuing day was then named by them as fixed 
for Lord Willoughby's farewell audience ; but before they took 
their leave, some mutual complaints were made and answered ; 
and neither party, although much civility was exchanged, appears 
to have abated one syllable of their demands. ^ When the 
Danish messengers complained that an English merchant ship 
had rescued a Dutch prize from their sovereign's own vessel, in 
his own streams, and had slain one of his gunners, Lord Wil- 
loughby showed that as sore an outrage had been perpetrated 



^ Camden's Elizabeth. Lord Willoughby's Narrative. 
2 Lord Willoughby's Narrative, British Museum, Cotton MSS., Titus, 
c. 7, art. 226. 



WILLOUGHBY S RETURN* 



73 



on his country, by certain of the Danish subjects, on the 
Emanuel of England, which the Danish ministers warmly declared 
was through no order or commission of the king their master, 
who desired nothing less than to engage with or annoy the 
English. Further, they begged a cessation on the part of Eliza- 
beth of the Russian trade, most prejudicial, as they averred, to, 
the interests of Denmark. This point, however, the ambassador 
declined to yield ; and concluded by declaring, that their nation 
had profited much by the trafficking of English vessels in the 
Sound, and ought not to interfere with those merchants who 
laboured for just and lawful adventure. As the king, however, 
promised more favour to the ships of Great Britain, than to 
those of any other nation passing and repassing his seas, the 
amity and goodwill between the powers seem to have remained 
undisturbed ; and Lord Willoughby, having concluded his mis- 
sion, returned to England on the 27th of September, 1582, bear- 
ing with him the approbation of the monarch whose court he had 
visited, which was cordially expressed in a Latin letter to Queen 
Elizabeth, dated August the 15th '. 




* Royal letters. State Paper Office, vol. xii. 

2 Vide Jacobson's Peerage, note to p. 74, (under Howard, Duke of Nor- 
folk,) for a dissertation on the Order of the Garter. 

L 



74 



HIS SECOND MISSION TO DENMARK. 



The next public service in which Lord Willoughby was 
engaged, was a second mission to the King of Denmark, in 
the year 1585, when EHzabeth employed him to negociate 
with that monarch for the obtaining of succours \ either in 
men or money, for the King of Navarre, afterwards Henri 
Quatre ; a cause in which she was greatly interested. In the 
opinion of Lord Willoughby ^, however, this negotiation be- 
ing an "untimely fruit, was never likely to wax ripe;" not 
that Frederick of Denmark was ill-disposed towards Navarre 
himself, but (as many princes have been both before and since) 
he was swayed by counsellors who had gathered round him ; 
and his Lord Treasurer, who openly avowed the hope that 
the Spanish king, Philip, should be lord of the Low Countries, 
was not likely to be favourably inclined to the Protestant 
heir to the throne of France. By a contemporary letter it seems 
that Willoughby had been present at Wolfenbuttel, at the 
nuptials of the son of the Duke of Brunswick ^ and arrived at 
Copenhagen on the 10th of October, 1585. The king was then 
at Anderskowe, about fifteen leagues from Elsinore, where he 
was " minded " to entertain the English ambassador " with him 
all the winter," with no "lack of Rhenish wine." Lord Wil- 
loughby seems satisfied that he was most royally and magnifi- 
cently received ; and in a letter dated October 25, 1585, informs 
Sir Francis Walsingham of all the courteous, kind, and afFection- 

^ Lord Willoughby's letter from Cronenburgh, dated December 15, 
1585. Burghley Papers, British Museum, Lansdowne MSS., No. 45, art. 
40. 

2 Lord Willoughby's letter to Sir Francis Walsingham, State Paper 
Office, Denmark, vol. i. 

3 Letter from Mr. Thomas Tenneker to Sir F. Walsingham, dated 
Elsinore, October, 1585. State Paper Office, Denmark, vol. i. 



HIS WISH TO JOIN LEICESTER. 75 



ate good wishes which the Danish sovereign heaped upon the 
head of his own royal mistress ; how earnestly he had desired for 
her the blessing of peace, concluding by a declaration, that if her 
heretofore peaceful and triumphant reign should be disturbed by 
the strife and miseries of war, he would be found better pre- 
pared to assist her by action than by words \ This idle, courtier- 
like life, however, did not exactly suit the active temper of Lord 
Willoughby, who " could," he says, " delight himself otherwise 
in things more fitted to his fortune ;" and now having performed 
his " promise," he seems anxious to be employed in another 
field ; and on the same day writes to the Earl of Leicester, 
desiring " to know of his journey into Flanders, which if it be 
true that he hear, he shall find him ready to wait on him at his 
coming, in such mean equipage as his fortune in a strange coun- 
try will permit him." He must have had many harassing cares 
on his shoulders at the moment ; the negotiation (not to his 
taste in any way) in which he was engaged, the desire to join the 
army in Flanders, and some domestic annoyances in England, in 
which he begs the assistance of the Secretary, Sir Francis Wal- 
singham, that he might be " protected from such as would make 
any claim to his inheritance in his absence, otherwise than for 
debt." 

The cold replies, also, which he received to the Queen's suit, 
must have been an additional annoyance. " They understand 
better^," says he, ^' proximus sum egomet mihi ; and in their 
selfishness, too, had not learned the maxim, humani nihil a me 
alienum puto." The German princes, also, whom Elizabeth 

^ State Paper Office, Denmark, vol. i. See Appendix, art. FF. 
2 Letter from Lord Willoughby, dated from Cronenbui-gh, December 15, 
1585. Burghley Papers, Lansdowne MSS., No. 45, art. 40. 

L 2 



76 AFFAIRS OF THE KING OF NAVARRE. 

had hoped to interest for the King of Navarre, remained still in 
their deep security, careless of what befel others, dreaming of 
their ubiquity ', and some of them inclined "to be Popish and 
Spanish more of late than heretofore." 

Lord Willoughby gives a very complete account of his nego- 
tiation in his letters to Sir Francis Walsingham. In his report 
of it, dated December 15th, 1585, he mentions having received 
her Majesty's letters of the 6th of December, and that he had 
dealt with the Chancellor Kaas in the affairs of the Hans Towns, 
and with success. On Sunday the 12th, he says, he had access 
to the king, going with great solemnity to the chapel, where it 
was his custom to be accompanied by his two sons, and that on 
his return he delivered the Queen's letters and messages, the 
account of which must be given in his own words. " I laid," says 
he, "before him the distressed state of the King of Navarre, and 
in what severe and forcible sort the French king is carried into 
the present action against him, letting him know the dangerous 
terms the said King of Navarre standeth in," which "hath 
stirred up in her Majesty an extraordinary care of his safety and 
preservation ;" also how " glad she would be to know his dispo- 
sition in the cause, and how far forth he can be content to stretch 
himself towards a contribution for the levy of some forces to be 
sent unto him ; which if the king will yield unto, her Majesty 
will treat effectually with Casimir and the Landgrave Hesse." , 

On receiving these requests on the part of Elizabeth, the king 
having desired they might be committed to paper, and that the 

^ A controversy between the Lutherans and Calvinists touching the 
ubiquity of our Lord's body. For more particulars see in the Appendix a 
copy of a paper still preserved in the British Museum, and which appears to 
have been a private instruction to Lord Willoughby. (Art. GG.) 



Chancellor and Lord Willoughby should have further conference 
on the subject, waved the matter for the moment, for which pro- 
ceeding, it being Sunday, he had certainly some excuse, and pro- 
ceeded to the more agreeable task of entertaining his guest. 
Placing Lord Willoughby above him at table, the king sat down 
to a splendid and royal feast, and commencing as usual by com- 
pliments to the British sovereign, he declared that his first 
draught should always be to her, which he trusted she would 
return in like courtesy by him. He loaded Willoughby with 
every demonstration of respect, caused a lodging to be prepared 
for him in the castle, commanded the same attendance on him of 
his chiefest nobility as they rendered to himself, provided a diet 
for him, and two persons of the best quality he had, to be the one 
his cup-bearer, the other his carver \ 

No wonder, however, that Willoughby should have been im- 
patient of a mission, in which fair speeches and professions ap- 
pear to have been much more plentiful than solid demonstrations 
of friendship. The next day, being confined to his chamber by 
illness, (to which he appears to have been frequently subject,) he 
was there waited upon by the Chancellor, on the part of the king, 
the sum of whose discourse may be thus briefly expressed : 

First, he observed that the king had no foreign succours from 
the Queen of England in his dangerous wars with Sweden. 

Secondly, how far distant France was from him ; and that as 
for this cause being religious, the same God that had always pro- 
tected them (the Protestants), would, he hoped, do the like 
now ; that in the worst case they might have liberty of con- 
science, with life and goods, in foreign countries ; also, that it 

' Repoi't of Lord Willoughby 's negotiation in Denmark, December 15, 
1585. State Paper Office, Denmark, vol. i. 



78 



WILLOUGHBY S REPLY. 



was the duty of subjects, in any circumstances, to obey their 
prince ; and in all humility to acknowledge a wicked prince to 
be a plague of God. 

Thirdly, that he could not in honour make war with the King 
of France, as he should seem to do by assisting the Protestants, 
having received no injury from him. 

Fourthly, the danger of drawing upon him so many enemies as 
he should provoke by this step, since all the German princes 
were cold, and withheld assistance. 

Fifthly, that it was not possible to undertake it without con- 
sulting his nobility, whom he could not be sure of, divided as 
they were in opinions. 

Sixthly and lastly, that if this affair touched the Queen her- 
self, and she demanded aid on her own behalf, " he knew what 
he had to do for one to whom he bore so much brotherly affec- 
tion, as he could be contented to adventure much, yea even life 
and all." 

To these objections Lord Willoughby replied, that the war 
alluded to between Denmark and Sweden was in consequence of 
a particular difference which had arisen between the two, and no 
general cause like the present, " wherein many princes were con- 
federated with the pope for the subversion of the reformed reli- 
gion, and the godly princes of that profession." 

Allowing France to be far removed, he observed that there 
were there ambitious minds, which, if they succeeded in their 
designs, '' would think the way near to Denmark ; namely, 
Guise." 

Neither would it be an act of *' unkindness, or breach of amity 
to the King of France, to assist his nearest cousin in blood, and 
next heir to the crown, against the insolent behaviour, of such a 



subject as the king himself had complained of," and whose " re- 
bellious endeavours tended to the subversion of the crown. 
How well also it agreed with God's word, that we should use 
ordinary means of proceeding, and not to attend always miracu- 
lous deliverance from God, and so post over our commiseration 
of our afflicted brethren, till they might haply find charity in 
some one corner of the world." A cold charity, indeed, that 
would be, which would not stretch out a hand to help a fellow- 
creature, or promote the cause of religious truth, alleging as an 
excuse, that God is omnipotent to save, powerful to defend his 
own. Most true ; who would doubt it ? but if we can become 
his instruments for holy and charitable purposes, so much the 
more blessed may we deem our lot. 

Lord Willoughby next observed that the poor Protestants of 
France, for whom he craved these succours, were less in want of 
being reminded of " the plague of God," and of having '' humility 
preached to them," than " consolations ;" for he had " witnessed 
their lowly and loyal spirits commending their lives like simple 
and innocent sheep, to the butchery of cruel and faithless pastors, 
as, by example, the late executed massacre at Paris, and many 
times since attempted, may appear." 

As for the danger of making enemies of the kings of France 
and Spain, his Majesty might consider what "superficial friend- 
ship " theirs was and must be, owing to the " diversity of reli- 
gious affections." " That they take part with his enemy the 
pope, whose sentence had decreed his curse and incapableness of 
the crown.' ' How powerful they would be against him (the King 
of Denmark) '* and Christ's professors, when they have van- 
quished the remnant left," a remnant that need not be despaired 
of, if any succour was granted to it at this crisis of its fate. 




He prayed his Majesty not to follow the example of those 
" German princes affected with lethargy, nor follow a neutrality 
which lost friends, and got enemies ;" the common fate of those 
who, dreading to displease any, become at last trusted by none. 

Lord Willoughby prayed the king also to bear in mind that 
help, in order to be effectual, must be speedy ; and concluded 
by acknowledging his expressions of continued affection to her 
Majesty, and rejoicing that it was his fortune more than his wor- 
thiness to be a witness thereof. He was then required to set 
down his negotiation on paper, which he adds that he did " in the 
best Latin and sense he could, unfurnished as he was with 
assistant or secretary.'^ 

However, on the Wednesday following, on Willoughby's next 
interview with the king, he received his Majesty's reiterated pro- 
fessions of willingness to demonstrate his sound affection for his 
beloved " sister," but coupled with regrets that he could not 
satisfy her, whom he was " loth to deny," especially in a " cause 
he himself so well affected;" and trusted that she would think 
the best, and weigh well the reasons he had already set forth in 
his declaration. 

This declaration, and his own writing in Latin, with the above 
report. Lord Willoughby forwarded to Sir F. Walsingham, adding, 
" In these parts religion must first be persuaded, then policy ; 
till they be satisfied in the one, it is in vain to solicit the other. 
Though this king standeth not with the ubiquitaries in opinion, 
yet doth he in resolution of affairs, which more largely than 
wisely I wrote to you of in my last letter, and also what I 
thought this king would be brought unto ; but I perceive they 
were not come to you, when yours were dispatched to me. The 
king's treasurer here spared not openly to wish the Spaniard 



WILLOUGHBY's letter to ELIZABETH. 81 

(the emperor) lord of the Low Country." (The struggle of the 
Netherlanders was at this time much in men's thoughts.) " The 
good king" of Denmark is undoubtedly of another affection, yet 
held back with avarice and opinion of profit, which this money- 
scraper bewitcheth him with. The king," he continues, com- 
manded her Majesty's letters to be translated into Dutch, and 
" keepeth them in his own secret coffer as the specialest jewels he 
hath. He beareth about him her Majesty's picture in a tablet 
of gold, in which he hath much contentment." How flagrantly 
Elizabeth's contemporaries thus, with a sovereign at their head, 
appear to have fed her appetite for flattery ! 

" I beseech you," continues Willoughby, "deal with her Ma- 
jesty that I may be discharged of these services; for it passeth 
my reach to communicate with princes, and my purse to bear 
the port, and give rewards like a Queen's ambassador. I am 
fitter to follow a camp, than these causes whither I am now 
hastening. My Lord of Leicester hath honoured me to call me \ 
and I am most willing to come and follow him ^." 

On the same day that he wrote the above, Lord Willoughby 
addressed another letter to the Queen herself, dated also Cronen- 
burgh, the 15th of December, and informing her, that to avoid 
being tedious, he had presumed to send each particularity to her 
Majesty's secretary, Mr. Walsingham, by him to be communi- 
cated to her Majesty. " Most humbly," he continues, " by 
these beseeching your most gracious acceptance of my willing 
endeavours, whereunto if my sufficiency had been answerable, I 

^ To join him in the Low Countries, where Leicester had lately arrived 
as general of the Q,ueen of England's auxiliary forces against the Spaniard. 
Camden's Elizabeth, Stow. 

2 Letter in the State Paper Office, Denmark, vol. i. dated December 15. 

M 



82 THE king's message. 



should have been acquitted of that fear which now I stand in, 
lest by ignorance failing, I may have offended ; desirous, as be- 
cometh a most humble and dutiful subject, to do any service 
agreeable, acknowledging my want of experience and tact in 
these, and vowing my readiness in all actions to venture my 
life." He ends thus : "And so most rare and excellent sove- 
reign, beseeching Almighty God to heap all happiness unto your 
flourishing state, to the comfort of all us and all his, I leave to 
trouble your Majesty with these unworthy lines \" 

Concluding that his mission was accomplished, and that he 
was at liberty to depart for Flanders, where he longed to serve 
in the field for valour now just opened. Lord Willoughby was on 
the eve of taking his departure from Copenhagen, when a hur- 
ried message from the king called him back to Cronenburgh; for 
Frederick, repenting apparently of the answer he had lately 
given, on second thoughts desired to mollify, though he did not 
retract it. The sum of his intended amelioration is contained in 
the following passage of Lord Willoughby's letter to Queen 
Elizabeth, of the 25th of December, 1.585. 

" The great comfort the king conceived by having so excellent 
a prince his neighbour, gave him just occasion to weigh how dan- 
gerous and grievous it would be to him, that the Spaniard should 
by contrary fortune of war, or any other accident, have any 
means to step so near him ; wherefore he would in these first 
beginnings, by a Christian means if he could, to avoid further 
inconvenience of war, deal with the King of Spain to retire all 
his forces out of the Low Countries, and to leave unto them their 
ancient liberties of free government and conscience ; and to the 

^ Letter in the State Paper Office, Denmark, vol. i. Lord Willoughby to 
Queen Elizabeth, Cronenburgh, December 15, 1585. 



like effect he would treat with the King of France for the King 
of Navarre's affairs. If neither would condescend to his request, 
he would, as their ships passed his Straits, annoy them, espe- 
cially Spain. If this succeeded not as he hoped, he would assay 
all other means he might ^" 

This, after all, was but a vague promise, but at least showed 
that the king was afraid to offend Elizabeth. Willoughby 
detailed the result of this last interview also to Sir Francis Wal- 
singham^, with the king's assurances that he devised this new 
offer of service to her Majesty, having " debated the matter in 
his night thoughts and day cares," and then finally took his leave 
of the Court of Denmark, though he found it no easy matter to 
get out of the country, owing to the extreme inclemency of the 
season. The letters he had forwarded to England three weeks 
before, he himself overtook the bearer of at Hamburgh, where 
we next find him. The frozen passage had prevented the journey 
of the messenger ; as the severity of the weather, by making the 

^ Letter of Lord Willoughby to the Queen, State Paper Office, Denmark, 
vol. i. dated Copenhagen, December 25, 1585. 

2 In this letter Lord Willoughby gives a curious account of an observa- 
tion of the famous Tycho Brahe, too remarkable to be omitted : " There was 
observed," says he, " of Tycho Brahe, (a rare astronomer, of a great and 
noble house,) a new comet, sine cauda, that began the 18th of October, last- 
ing till the 15th of November. It wEisprimce magnitudinis, somewhat dark 
about the extreme parts, but bright in the midst, higher than the moon, and 
not so high as the sun. The 25th of the same month, when the moon came 
to the place of the same star, there was as great a storm as ever I saw in my 
life. It is not wonderful he should observe it, for he hath divers servants 
in an observatory fui-nished with rare huge and admirable instruments, which 
do nightly watch the course of stai-s, whereof I have been a present wit- 
ness."— Lord Willoughby to Sh' F. Walsingham, December 23, 1585. State 

Paper Office, Denmark, vol. i. 

M 2 



river impassable, cut off one of Willoughby's routes to Embden, 
the next place of his destination. But a new and most formida- 
ble difficulty now opposed his speedy passage. The emissaries 
of the King of Spain having some knowledge of his intention of 
engaging in the service of the revolted states of Holland, resolved 
at all hazards to prevent his junction with Leicester if possible. 
In Hamburgh itself an ambush was laid for him by the " design- 
ing Spaniard ;" from which danger, however, he escaped, through 
the faithfulness of the King of Denmark's servant, " detecting 
the company, and so eschewing the danger." At this period he 
writes home in all the uncomfortable uncertainty of not knowing 
when his letters might reach their destination, or whether they 
would do so at all \ 

After this account of his perilous condition, one is glad to find 
Willoughby safely arrived at Embden, on the 29th of January, 
1585-6; so far advanced on his journey, notwithstanding the 
plots of his enemies, and the extremity of the weather, which he 
says has " frozen up all the passages on this side, and has, I per- 
suade myself, sent you some kindly frosts on that side." He was 
a little perplexed, however, by a letter from Mons. Segur, in a 
certain degree claiming his mediation, as the Queen's ambassador, 
for the King of Navarre with the German princes ; but finding no 
such charge in his commission, and no instructions for such fur- 
ther diplomacy, he still " held his course," and bent his thoughts 
towards Flanders. 

Things, however, by his own account, bore a better aspect for 
the King of Navarre : the electors of Saxony and Brandenburgh 



^ Letter of Lord Willoughby to Sir Francis Walsingham, dated Ham- 
bui'gh, January 4tli, 1585-6. State Paper Office, Denmark, vol. i. 



I 



willoughby's difficulties. 85 

had promised to send their ambassadors to Henry the Third of 
France, requiring him to make peace in his realm, and receive 
under his protection his Protestant subjects, declaring they would 
permit no levy in their dominions against the King of Navarre or 
the cause of Protestantism. An assembly was to be held at 
Worms by the Protestant princes or their deputies, for sending 
the said embassy to France, which the King of Denmark was 
warmly solicited to countenance \ 

For his own part, Willoughby adds, that he has so " well pro- 
fited in his travail," as to be able to command, for the Queen's 
service, a force of two thousand horse, which, in two or three 
months at the farthest, he shall be able to bring into the field to 
serve her ; a valuable assistance, since Willoughby reports them 
to be the most honest and principal men of those who had served 
the king himself in his wars with Sweden, and an earnest of that 
sovereign's good will. He trusts, he adds, to be able to "bring 
them as far as Embden;" and apologises for the confusion in 
which he writes, environed by all the difficulty of dispatching 
his letters with any degree of safety, and forced to employ as a 
messenger a disguised French page, as he and his English ser- 
vants were so well known and way-laid, that till a thaw should 
have opened the river, they could not pass without running the 
risk of being intercepted. About the same time, or a little 
before, the English ambassador gives a yet fuller account of the 
perils and difficulties of his most uncomfortable situation. " The 
passage," he says, "is such, as if I had any thing worth com- 
mending unto you, I would hardly commit it ; the enemy with 



^ Lord Willoughby's letter to Sir F. Walsinghara, State Paper Office, 
Denmark, vol. i. Embden, January 29th, 1585-6. 



their yachts daily cometh within a mile English, and from thence 
some . . . even into the town, whereby I am in no great security ; 
so that they bestow more cost to get me than I am worth." 

He must have been, as he says, fairly hemmed in, " in a cage," 
these plotting enemies lying all around him, with a force, in the 
adjacent islands ^ of two hundred men ; the like force on board 
four yachts at Carle, at a place between the Knoch and Embden ; 
and two vessels at sea, on the look-out to apprehend him, well 
manned with two hundred men in each. The town of Embden 
had given him permission to use their own ship as a convoy ; but 
some of the principal citizens, of honest purpose and well 
affected, presented themselves before him, with most earnest re- 
quests that he would not surrender himself to the doubtful ho- 
nesty of its captain, " half a malcontent," and who was reported 
even to have furnished the malcontents with provisions. The 
ships belonging to the States were in the same predicament as 
himself, so tightly frozen up as to be immoveable ; and the irri- 
tation and annoyance of such a captivity in the rigours of winter, 
joined to the treacherous practices of a secret foe, may be better 
imagined than described, and would evidently not have been 
much longer endured with patience ; " for, "adds our prisoner, " I 
would require some convoy from home, but I hope, before that 
shall come, I shall have determined my journey one way or 
another, even hy God's help through them, for they have left me 
no other passage." His desire was still towards Flanders ; but in 
such a strait, of course, it was necessary to depart as soon as 
possible, in whatever direction he could most reasonably hope to 
effect his deliverance from this intolerable blockade. "If," he 

1 The islands of Ameland and Schermonck Oge. 



DANGER AT HAMBURGH. 87 



continues, " I get at liberty, I hope I shall sing no ill-tuned note, 
either to you at home or in Flanders, wheresoever God shall 
send me first safe lighting. Thus have I boldly but truly ad- 
vertised my state unto you, as to my honourable friend, whom I 
desire by circumstances to conceive of my doings ; and that if 
you shall find just cause, I may be by you further com- 
mended, so that when this frost shall thaw and yield, some 
favour and grace may also be yielded unto me, which is the 
chiefest thing which I desire to have confirmed unto me by 
deeds and not words." (This favour must be the grace of the 
Queen's confidence in honourable employment.) '* The hope 
whereof," he adds, "maketh me think all labour ease, and all 
adventures pleasant \" 

The next we hear of Willoughby is in a letter of Lord Leices- 
ter's to Sir Francis Walsingham, from the Hague, dated February 
21, 1586, and which announces his arrival at that place that 
same morning, with the welcome intelligence that the King of 
Denmark was willing to assist the Queen with troops, " Ham- 
burgh," he adds, " is a villanous town, and wholly the King of 
Spain's. My Lord Willoughby was in great danger to be taken 
in that territory ^." The answers from Denmark had been but 
" doubtful ;" as Leicester wrote on the 15th, a step however had 
been gained. 

Again, on the 22nd, Lord Leicester mentions the kind message 
sent him by the King of Denmark, through Lord Willoughhy^ 



^ Letter of Lord Willoughby to Sir Francis Walsingham, from Embden, 
January, 1586. State Paper Office, Denmark, vol. i. 

2 Lord Leicester to Sir F. Walsingham, British Museum, Harleian MSS., 
285, f. 214. 



offering '' to her Majesty's service two thousand horse, with his 
best captains, and his own son, if she pleases \" 

The precise day of his departure from Embden is not clearly 
ascertained ; but as Leicester, in a letter dated from the Hague, 
on the 1st of February, speaks of the enemy having entered 
Friesland before the breaking up of the frost, it may be concluded 
that it had then given way, and Willoughby's enlargement had 
taken place. 

On the 12th of March we find him at Amsterdam, on that 
theatre of war, which he evidently considered as better suited to 
his disposition and talents, than the course of diplomacy which 
had just engaged him ; but before we plunge into the history of 
the war in the Low Countries, or rather of that portion of it in 
which our hero's military capacity and prowess obtained scope 
and opportunity to display themselves, it may be necessary to 
allude to the relative positions, at the moment, of England and 
Holland. 

Those seven provinces of the Netherlands, which were at this 
time in the midst of their struggle against the tyrannical power of 
Spain, had again ventured to make an application for aid and 
countenance to the British sovereign. Some years before, in 
1577, they had dispatched the Marquis of Haverah with a mis- 
sion of the same nature ; and she had then condescended to their 
entreaties, and sent forces to their assistance, under the command 
of General Norreys^ Their accumulated distresses, and the 

^ Letter of the Earl of Leicester to Lord Burghley, February 22, 1585-6. 
British Museum, Lansdowne MSS., No. 46, fol. 59. 

2 Camden's Elizabeth, p. 319. Haverah had also been sent on a second 
mission in April, 1578, and obtained a loan of 5000^. State Paper Office, 
Holland correspondence. 




pressure of a yoke which they scarcely felt to have the power of 
themselves to shake off, induced them, after an unsuccessful ap- 
peal to Henry the Third, of France, to resort again to Elizabeth, 
who after a little hesitation entered into a fresh treaty with them. 

She was certainly not of a disposition inclined to countenance 
subjects in any thing that looked like a revolt ; but in this case, 
the cruelty of the Spaniards towards the Netherlanders, and the 
political necessity of keeping Philip of Spain at bay, were com- 
bined motives for exertions in favour of a nation who were 
also professors of the reformed faith. In their original commis- 
sion, the States invited the Queen to take upon her their " pro- 
tection and defence;" but when in England their deputies were 
admitted to an audience, they went a step further, and be- 
sought her to undertake the " government " of their country. 
This, however, she refused to accept, but agreed (by treaty) 
to aid them with a force of five thousand foot, and one thousand 
horse, under the command of a governor-general, an honourable 
person ^ ; engaging to find them pay during the war, at the same 
time requiring to hold certain forts and castles, with Flushing and 
the Isle of Brill, in caution for the repayment of her charge, with 
a few other articles ; by this step, though claiming no authority 
over them, she openly undertook their protection. 

It was at the close of the year 1585, and at the moment when 
Willoughby was engaged in that Danish mission of which the 
circumstances have been just recorded, that the Earl of Leicester, 
being appointed by Queen Elizabeth general of her auxiliary 
forces in the Low Countries, departed, to take possession of his 
command. According to Camden, he was " tickled by an am- 



1 Camden's Elizabeth, p. 321. 

N 



90 THE queen's displeasure. 

bitious desire of glory," when he thus crossed the seas ; but be 
that as it may, he was honoured with the confidence of his sove- 
reign, and set sail with a splendid retinue, being accompanied ^ 
by the Earl of Essex, the Lords Audley and North, Sir William- 
Russel, Sir Thomas Shirley, and a select band of other knights 
and gentlemen. He was received at Flushing by the governor, 
his own brave and accomplished nephew, Sir Philip Sydney, and 
with every demonstration of joy and respect from the cities of 
Holland. Indeed the delight of the States at his presence in- 
clined them to an act very offensive to Elizabeth, and which she 
resented both towards them and him. Being arrived at the 
Hague, in the month of January, the " Estates General " con- 
ferred on him the chief government and absolute authority over 
the provinces, with the title of governor and captain-general, 
honours which he had not the forbearance to refuse, and by the 
acceptance of which he gave great offence to the Queen. "How 
contemptuously you have carried yourself towards us," she 
writes to him, " you shall understand by this messenger, whom 
w^e send to you for that purpose. We little thought that one 
whom we had raised from the dust, and prosecuted with such 
singular favour above all others, would with so great contempt 
have slighted and broken our commands in a matter of so great 
consequence, and so highly concerning us and our honour ; 
whereof though you have but small regard, contrary to what you 
ought by your allegiance, yet think not that we are so careless 
of repairing thereof, that we can bury so great an injury in 
silence and oblivion ^" 

She addressed also an angry expostulation to the States, that 

^ Camden, p. 326. ^ Camden's Elizabeth, p. 327. 



LORD WILLOUGHBY TO WALSINGHAM. 91 

" they had, to her disgrace, and without her knowledge, conferred 
the absolute government of the confederate provinces on her sub- 
ject; whereas she had positively refused it herself, and by a 
public manifesto had declared to the whole world, that she in- 
tended only to relieve and succour her neighbours in their dis- 
tress, and no ways to take upon her the sovereignty over them '." 
It must be acknowledged that Elizabeth had some cause for dis- 
pleasure ; but the humble reply and explanation of the States, 
backed by Leicester's repentant expressions, and even, as Cam- 
den tells us, by his "tears," had the effect of softening and ap- 
peasing her indignation, so that by little and little it faded from 
her mind. 

In one of Lord Willoughby's letters we find him, as has been 
already mentioned, receiving a report of these military prepara- 
tions ; afterwards we hear that Leicester, who certainly valued 
his talents and capacity for war, desired to have him near to 
himself. We have traced his departure from Denmark, and the 
provoking circumstances that delayed him in that country ; and 
we left him at Amsterdam on the 12th of March, 1586, where 
we now return to seek him, and where he is to be found engaged 
in writing to Sir Francis Walsingham, and apparently dreading 
nothing more than to be sent to Denmark, or any where else, 
from Flanders, and at his own charge. " What I have done," 
he says, " and as I live here, makes me know what it is to 
spend sufficiently. I would I knew but half so well what recom- 
pense means, though it were but in reputation, not in profit;" 
adding, that *' he hopes God will continue the mind of the King 
of Denmark so well affected as he left it, that good success may 

1 Camden's Elizabeth, p. 327- 
N 2 



follow. He may perhaps make squeamish to join in war, on 
our side, before it be openly proclaimed by us, or that he had 
sent to the King of Spain to know how conformable he would be 
to his request in those points her Majesty setteth down. I re- 
ceived a letter from old Ranzow \ vicegerent of Hoist, wherein I 
understand it hath been practised by the Spaniard and Spanish 
faction, earnestly to remove him from her Majesty, but I per- 
suade their intelligence is so perfect as it may faint, but never 
fail. His Excellency's (the Earl of Leicester's) excellent enter- 
tainment in all places, with a general applause of all persons, I 
know it is better advertised by divers more sufficient and more 
acquainted, and therefore having nothing else but my good will 
to commend unto you, I leave you to God^." 

Only once more do we find Willoughby returning to the sub- 
ject of Denmark, and his late mission, in a letter to Lord Burgh- 
ley^ : he regrets that he had no great news to transmit to him, 
having heard nothing since the death of the Duke of Saxony, the 
brother-in-law of Frederick, King of Denmark, except that the 
cause of Henry of Navarre was in a prosperous state in Ger- 
many. Here, then, we will also take our leave of the Danish 
affairs, to enter upon more active scenes; and open our history of 
the campaign in Flanders with an account of a brilliant success 
gained at this time by English arms, to which he refers in this 
communication. 

Grave, a town of importance in Brabant, had been for several 

1 In a list of the Privy Council of the King of Denmark in the British 
Museum, at the time of Lord Willoughby 's journey, occurs the name of 
Breida Rantzovius de Rantzonholm. Tit. c. vii. 

2 Letter of Lord Willoughby, State Paper Office, Holland, vol. 31. 

3 Dated Utrecht, April 9, 1586, State Paper Office, Holland, vol. 32. 



months in a state of siege, the command of which was entrusted 
to Charles, Count Mansfeld, by the Prince of Parma, Spanish 
governor of the Netherlands. It stood on the border of the river 
Maese, and at this time was surrounded by the works of the 
besiegers ^. Lord Leicester laid a plan to relieve the distressed 
town and garrison by a supply of provision ; and having pre- 
pared a great number of boats, well loaded with the necessary 
stores, despatched the Count Hollock, or Hohenlo, with Mr. 
Norreis ^, on the important charge of succouring the beleaguered 
inhabitants. Their force consisted only of one thousand men ; 
and, on arriving, Hollock charged and won a windmill fortified 
by the Spaniards, near the town, and which from its position was 
of immense consequence. But the most gallant action of the 
day was performed by Norreis, who, leaving the rest of the men 
w4th Count Hollock, pressed forward with three hundred only; 
and, finding a flat piece of ground advantageously situated by a 
ditch, took up his position there, and began to entrench himself. 
Behind him lay a piece of water, which proved less deep than he 
had imagined, of which the enemy, who were not wanting in 
bravery, presently availed themselves. So soon as he had taken 
possession of the ground, Norreis commenced his works, for the 
relief and victualling of the town ; and just as they were in for- 
wardness, the Spaniards having proved the water, and found it 
passable, waded through it breast high, and attacked the English 
in their trenches, "where there was a notable fight ^," most 

1 Camden's Elizabeth, p. 328. 

2 He was the second son of Lord Norreys of Rycote, was of heroic valour, 
and had already distinguished himself in the Netherlands, and on one occa- 
sion had three horses killed under him. 

^ So says Lord North in a letter to Lord Burghley, dated Utrecht, April 



valiantly sustained by Norreis and his few men against one thou- 
sand Spanish, two thousand more being distant only a mile. So 
weak a force was of course, however, insufficient, and Norreis 
sent with all speed for succours. The assault was hotly con- 
tinued ; and just at this moment of anxiety, the general received 
a blow on the breast with a pike, though not a dangerous one. 
Mr. Boroughs was shot in the hand by a musket, and Captain 
Price wounded in the thigh. Norreis found it necessary to order 
a retreat ; but the triumph of the enemy in thus, as they 
imagined, regaining possession of the disputed territory, was of 
short duration. Even in retiring, Norreis joined the troops hasten- 
ing to his assistance, and, thus re-inforced, returned to th6 charge, 
and soon recovered his ground, with small loss on his part, and 
much on the side of the enemy. He was in a moment at the 
head of his own men and " the Hollocks," and, though bleeding 
profusely, led them to the spot from whence he had retired. 
Both sides were anxious to engage : the bitterness of the struggle 
had roused all their energy, and never was there an encounter 
sharper or more warmly conducted. Count Hollock's mus- 
keteers did good service ; out of his sixty men, thirty were 
slain. The Spaniards fled, and were pursued. Count Hollock, 
" on horseback, followed the chace, and is thought to have killed 
twenty with his own hand." At length the enemy seemed to 
stand still, and again to turn at bay, when Norreis sounded a 
retreat, which call was obeyed by the English, and the carnage 
ceased. Just afterwards Count Hollock fell in with Norreis, spent 
at last by fatigue, labour, and bleeding, " at a point he could 



18, 1586, from which letter, and from one of Lord Willoughby's, dated on 
the 9th of April, and also copied from the documents of the State Paper 
Office, the relation of this engagement is taken. Appendix, art. HH. 



SUCCESS OF THE ENGLISH. 95 



no further," (he had had a second slight wound in the face,) and, 
causing one of his men to alight, mounted him and his brother 
Henry on horseback, " and so saved them both *." Six hundred 
of the Spaniards fell, either dying at the moment, or subsequently 
of their hurts, many of whom were persons of note. After this 
victory, Mr. Norreis retired to Utrecht, to recover from the effects 
of his wound ; and Lord Leicester determined to send several 
companies of foot to supply those that were there already, of 
which number Lord Willoughby writes he is to make one. 
" Other place have I none yet, neither can I ask any, because of 
my own insufficiency ; but since your Lordship hath vouchsafed 
in your letters to remember it, I should think myself bound unto 
you, if I might but for some stay of the excessive charge 
that I have been at, both before and since my coming hither, be 
by your good means credited with the leading of some three 
hundred lance, and a regiment of foot, of those companies that 
are now levied in England. If 1 look not for something from 
you at home, I fear me I may attend here as a loose soldier, so 
many worthy are already preferred." This is the same favour 
he had requested of Burghley in a former letter ; and it is just 
at this time that a private letter was addressed to him from his 
own home in England, by a Mr. Stubbe, (" his scrivener," as he 
styles himself,) and which, from the affectionate good wishes it 
contains for his success and well doing in the very campaign of 
which we are treating, cannot be misplaced here. It runs thus : 

^ This was the Count Hollock, brother-in-law to Count Maurice, after- 
wards so singularly wounded during a parley with the enemy : whilst acting 
as interpreter, he received a musket-shot in the mouth ; and the bullet, 
passing out at his ear, smote off the "jewel " which he wore there. — Stow's 
Annals, p. 1254. 



96 willoughby's affairs. 

" We pray you next after your honour, to have care of your 
person and purse. We remember you in our prayers, and we 
pray for you in good resolution of conscience, sith the question is 
holy and just; and we doubt not but your affection to that ser- 
vice is not of vain glory, but of zeal to God's glory, and relief 
of his oppressed children ; and in such a quarrel, fighting with 
such an affection, a man may look for God's protection ; and 
also the desire of winning honour to a man's self and country, is 
a holy desire of honour. The Lord bless you, and protect you, 
and give you happy issue of all your councils and enterprises. 

My lady looks, she saith, continually for her hours of 

travail, and therefore prays excuse for her not writing this 
time. 

" She saith, she perceiveth herself suspected to have informed 
your Lordship touching the last account \ and therefore doubted 
least in some spleen they deny her this 50/., according to your 
Lordship's note left with her. She prays that upon such an occa- 
sion, and by such means, it may not be taken from her. The 
Commissioners' answer is not that they will not pay it, but only 
that after the bills paid, they will keep the rest in their hands till 
further orders from you ^." 

^ It appeal's from an earlier part of Stubbe's letter, that Lord Willoughby 
had appointed Commissioners in his absence, to receive certain sums of 
money belonging to him, and remit them accordingly ; and that one at least 
not only made him pay usury for his own money, but by paying him in 
Hamburgh coin, which was not sterling value, had in fact defrauded him of 
his due ; he does not, however, vouch for the certainty of this. 

2 Letter from " Jonathan Stubbe, Scrivener," to Lord Willoughby, dated 
"London, out of your own house in Barbican, April 21, 1586." From a 
copy, by the Honourable Charles Bertie Percy, of a letter in the possession 
of the late Lady Willoughby at Grimsthorpe. 



hemart's surrender. 97 

We shall soon find Lord Willoughby honourably and confiden- 
tially employed, but meanwhile must return to the affairs of 
Grave. 

The next step taken by Count Hollock was attended by the 
most perfect success. He commanded the dikes to be cut 
through on the Brabant side, opposite to the Sluys, and the 
trench where Norreis was first charged. The waters immediately 
rushed over the mainland, and so inundated it, that as many as 
one hundred flat-bottomed boats were enabled to cross it to the 
town, carrying a large store of provision and ammunition \ But 
this well-concerted plan was defeated by the inexperience and 
panic of the governor of the town, Mons. Hemart. Notwith- 
standing all that the English had done, notwithstanding the sea- 
sonable supply thus afforded by the good management of Count 
Hollock, no sooner did the Prince of Parma appear with his 
ordnance at the gates, than, dismayed by the thunder of his 
artillery, he compounded for the lives of himself and the towns- 
men, and surrendered the place. For this abandonment of his 
trust, however, he afterwards suffered death ^, as an example and 
warning to others, leaving but one apology behind, his youth, and 
ignorance in matters of war. 

On Sunday, the seventeenth day of the month, immediately 
before the sermon, his Excellency the Earl of Leicester bestowed 
the honour of knighthood on the gallant General Norreis. 

^ At the same time, it appears that Lord Willoughby went to 
Bergen op Zoom, of which town he was appointed governor ; 

1 Letter from Mr. D'Oyley to Lord Burghley, May 7, 1586. State Paper 
Office, Holland, vol. 32. 

2 Camden's Elizabeth. 

3 Letter from Mr. D'Oyley to Lord Burleigh, State Paper Office. 

o 




and one rejoices to find that he thus obtained what he so long 
desired — miHtary employment, Sir Philip Sydney having resigned 
in his favour, which he (Sydney) thus explains in a letter ad- 
dressed to Sir Francis Walsingham, and dated from Utrecht, 
March 24th, 1586. 

" For Bergen op Zoom, I delighted in it, I confess, because it 
was near the enemy ; but especially having a very fair house in 
it, and an excellent air, I destined it for my wife ; but finding 
how you deal there, and that ill payment in my absence thence 
might bring forth some mischief, and considering how apt the 
Queen is to interpret every thing to my disadvantage, I have re- 
signed it to my Lord Willoughby, my very friend, and indeed a 
valiant and frank gentleman, and fit for the place ; therefore I 
pray you that so much of my regality is fallen ^" 

It appears, however, by a letter received from home by Lord 
Willoughby, at this period of his entering on his new government, 
that his friends foresaw the immense charges in which it was 
likely to involve him ; and the caution given on the occasion by 
Mr. Stubbe is both affectionate and respectful. The letter runs 
thus : 

" Good my Lord, be not driven nor drawn from understanding 
your own state. Look into your own accompts as your leisure 
may serve. Be auditor auditorum in all your own business : my 
Lord Treasurer will do so ; my Lord of Leicester doth so ; the 
wise Lord Keeper would do so ; her Majesty's self will do so. 
Bergen op Zoom is but a cheery fare. It is Lincolnshire Hol- 
land that must cherish your honourable age. Trust more to that 
you have in hand from your Lordship's ancestors, than to the 



^ Vide Mr. Lodge's work, who quotes this letter, " From original letters 
preserved in our great national repository, Ed. Lodge." 



LADY WILLOUGHBY. 99 



wood SO wild of fair promises. So my writing displease not you, 
I reck not if others will needs be offended." 

Then follows a request to receive some written orders in Lord 
Willoughby's own hand, as to the transferring of money to him 
abroad, which Lady Willoughby demanded at home, and had 
received no message from himself to resign ; adding, however, 
that should it " please him to require it, by reason of some fur- 
ther charge than you looked for, you shall command it with all 
her heart, as anything else wherein she may show her good will. 
Here is also some unkindness, for sixty armours to be carried 
presently out of the house to the armourer, and so over sea. 
Now forasmuch as she knows not your Lordship's present neces- 
sity for them, and yet would be glad also to have some little 
warrant of-your hand for delivery, she causeth them to be pre- 
sented dressed in the house, so as they shall be ready w^henever 
my cousin Wingfield shall call for them, yet proving some war- 
rant from you, if it be possible before the time Some mes- 
sages are brought in my hearing to my Lady from my cousin 
Wingfield, that he hath authority from your Lordship to take all 
these things out of your house, without other warrant to him. 
.... Good my Lord, my Lady your wife takes herself for 
guardian of your house, and what is therein, during your absence, 
till the contrary appearing under your hand, and that she become 
privy thereto. It would remedy all to deliver your pleasure in 
a few written words. To say truth, it is no trifling matter to 
empty your storehouse of armour. It is a man's other treasury, 
therefore requireth some warrant from yourself. A man shall 
hardly get a robbinet out of her Majesty's armoury without 
warrant 

" Mr. Newcombe is safely returned, and he commendeth his 

o 2 



100 ADVICE TO THE LORD GOVERNOR. 

humble duty to your Lordship. He desired me to put you 
earnestly in mind for providing and procuring a preacher^ at 
Bergen op Zoom. If it be your pleasure to employ either of us 
that way, we shall do our best, after you have done what is to be 
done on that side 

" There is come a great ambassage from the King of Denmark, 
with such equipage of shipping and other furniture as seldom the 
like : it is one of his Majesty's chancellors. My Lady would 
gladly do him as much honour as your Lordship would have 
performed. 

" For your Bergen, since it hath pleased God and her Majesty 
to place you there, though it be with sore peril, yet am I glad 
the quarrel is so holy and honourable as countervails many men's 
employment. I doubt not but you use all means every way to 
strengthen you with men, victual, armour, ammunition, rampire, 
&c. Be valiant, my Lord, in so good a cause, yet advised, staid 
not sudden, and that shall never a whit detract from courage or 
valour. Father Fabius* cunctation mingled with Scipio's haut 
courage, makes a good confection 

" London, Barbican, from your own open gallery, this 14th of 
May, 1586. 

" Your good Lordship's unfeignedly to command, 

"Jonathan Stubbe, Scrivener^." 



^ This looks as if Mr. Stubbe was an ecclesiastic ; perhaps, however, lay- 
men might have been employed as preachers. 

2 Letter addressed " To the Right Honourable the Lord Willoughby of 
Willoughby, Eresby, &c. Lord Governor of Bergen op Zoom, Wancastle, and 
all her Majesty's forces, forts, and fortresses in Brabant." From a copy 
by the Hon. C. Bertie Percy, of a letter at Grimsthorpe. 



COMMENDATIONS TO NORREIS. 101 

In the mean while Leicester was not idle, and had many brave 
men around him to plan and execute great deeds, and exert 
their own personal courage in a very remarkable manner. After 
reviewing the horse at Nickerken, he marched to Arnheim ; and 
on the 11th of May, Sir John Norreis encamped with horse and 
foot before Nimeguen on the Betue. " Here the enemy held a 
sconce and two houses fortified, the one named Bemel, the other 
Van Loone ;" but the intrepid Norreis entrenched himself with 
two forts on each side of the enemy's sconce ; while Sir Martin 
Schenk, with some Dutch and two English companies, made his 
way to a place by the " todhiuse," or toll-house, where the 
Rhine parts into two branches, the one called the Rhine, the 
other the Vael ; and, to the annoyance of the enemy, erected a 
strong fort there, with five bastions, at the junction of the 
streams. Here Sir John Norreis was accompanied and assisted 
by his younger brothers, Edward and Henry '. Leicester suc- 
ceeded in driving the Spaniards from the Betue ^. 

Norreis had at this time received his commission to be Colonel- 
General of the infantry, and to make and nominate all foot cap- 
tains ; " notwithstanding which, his Excellency," writes Mr. 
D'Oyley to Lord Burghley, "hath ever since disposed them 
to his appetite. ... In that, and all other injuries," he con- 
tinues, " if I could strip myself from kindred and affections, I 
could have a singular subject to commend his valour and wis- 
dom ; but, above the rest, his especial patience in temporising, 
wherein he exceedeth most of his age." A most high praise to 



1 Letter of D'Oyley to Lord Burghley, May 24, 1586. State Paper Office, 
Hollaud, vol. 32. Appendix, art. JJ. 

2 Camden's Elizabeth, p. 328, 



102 



WILLOUGHBY S SERVICES ACKNOWLEDGED. 



any one, to combine an undaunted and daring courage, with a 
sound discretion, and a spirit of forbearance. 

Just at this juncture, the new Governor of Bergen op Zoom 
performed what Leicester names as " a notable piece of service," 
and of which he writes in high spirits to the Queen ; this was the 
intercepting by Lord Willoughby of the enemy's provision of 
corn\ He writes from Arnheim, May 27, 1586, having just 
received intelligence from Willoughby of the circumstances of 
the encounter: "Hearing," says he, "of a large convoy of four 
hundred and fifty waggons going to Antwerp, he went himself 
with two hundred horse and four hundred foot men, and met 
with them, being a thousand foot men ; set upon them, slew three 
hundred, took eighty prisoners, and destroyed all their waggons, 
saving twenty-seven he carried away for his soldiers' relief. 
This is a notable piece of service, and puts Antwerp in a danger 
of present revolt ; and it is thought it will forthwith send to me, 
and submit themselves, which I pray God grant ^." It is no 
doubt to this very success that the following domestic letter 
alludes, congratulating Lord Willoughby on his good fortune 
abroad, and the accession to his happiness at home. It would 
seem that the advice contained in Mr. Stubbe's last letter had 
not proved quite agreeable to his patron ; but the honesty and 
good feeling of his reply must have disarmed all displeasure. 
He writes thus : 

" My good Lord, my letters were not so fraught with kind 
words as was the heart from whence this proceeded, with true 



1 Camden's Elizabeth, p. 329. 

2 Letter of the Earl of Leicester to Queen Elizabeth. State Paper Office, 
Holland, vol. 32. 




affection, which bred that boldness in me to write as well of your 
affairs (being thereto otherwise moved), as also some conceits 
of my own, which it pleaseth your Lordship to call councils, 
finding that course not so agreeable to your present employ- 
ments, nor so fit for myself, I will recommend your state to God 
in my poor prayers, and rest as ready when and whereinsoever 
you shall command me, to perform any faithful trust as any man 
whosoever best feed. 

" Now, therefore, only to congratulate and rejoice with thanks 
to God on your behalf, I wot not whether to begin on this side 
seas, for God's mercy in the increase of your honourable family 
by one child ; or on that side, for your increase of honour by 
late most happy encounter and departure of the enemy. Both of 
them are signs of God's favour following and finding you at home 
and abroad. Both of them befel you in one week. Your home 
joy was first, having also the honour of the Lord's day, and 
thereof first. On Whitsunday last, which was the same day two 
years that God took your daughter to Himself, and in the same 
chamber He gave you another daughter. Thus God maketh his . 
chastisements and mercies somewhat remarkable to you, yet with 
a temper of much comfort. Before the birth, my Lady proposed 
to honour and banquet the ambassador of Denmark, by the occa- 
sion of bidding him gossip ^ and were it a son, to have the name 
Frederic ; falling to be a daughter, she held her purpose, not 
knowing how otherwise to entertain him in your absence, and to 
have the name of Sophia, according to his Queen's name. De- 
siring me to invite him, I talked with Mr. Somerset ; and we 
two, with a third, found it best for my Lady to acquaint her 

^ Stand godfather. 



104 HER BAPTISM. 



highness therewith ; because the ambassador having few days of 
abode, was to bestow them at her Majesty's special appointment. 
The Queen, dealt w^ith once and again, liked that he should be 
banqueted, but not gossipped. The reason appeared plainly, 
for that she had appointed his departure the very next day, so 
that my Lady could do neither the one nor the other. Her 
Ladyship then prayed Mr. Somerset and me to go and signify 
yet her good meaning towards him. This solemn negotiation 
was performed by Herehaught^ Somerset and me, from Wil- 
loughby House to Crosby Place, on Thursday, May 26th. Our 
honest Herehaught told me it was best to do it in Latin, which I 
spake privately to such effect as I send here inclosed. And that 
your Lordship may see the whole of our day's work, I send 
herewithal (so far as I bare it away) the effect of his answer to 
me, which he made very readily in good Latin. I esteem him a 
man, wise, learned, fearing God, and honouring your Lordship 
in much love. My Lady being now to take other gossips, the 
child was baptized, on Monday following, at your parish church. 
The name referred wholly to my Lady Huntingdon, who, having 
some notice of my Lady's intent towards the ambassador, would 
have it Sophia ; and indeed at the font, the Countess called it 
Sophia ; but the Lord and the other Lady called it Katherine, 
after my Lady's grace, your mother's name ; and yet to please 
the Danish Queen you may rightly say, that at the font, by your 
most honourable gossip, it was named Sophia. And (if you will) 
instead of Sophia Elizabeth, which is that Queen's name, you 
may call it Sophia Katherine, in regard of the honourable grand- 
mother. This is the natural and (as I may say) the spiritual birth 

1 Herald. 



of your child, wherein I am long of purpose, supposing you 
would willingly understand every circumstance ; to the end also, 
that if you write anything of thanks to the Countess of Hunting- 
don, you may know how humbly and willingly she did all, and 
even for the name she would have had it Sophia, thinking there- 
with to content you, but my Lady told her, and I was bold to 
tell her, that you loved her name of Katherine right well. Mr. 
Alleyn preached very well at the baptism, and with honourable 
mention of your Lordship. The banquet was very well per- 
formed for the charge and order. It was honoured also with 

earls, knights, ladies, esquires, and gentlemen 

" For your prosperous success, good my Lord, on that side 
against God's enemy and ours, many men thank God ; and I as 
joyful as any, to hear your praises in every man's mouth. And 
I humbly thank your Lordship for this favour of acquainting me 
therewith from yourself; for indeed, when those that love you 
ask me of you, I am out of countenance, except I have some- 
what of certainty to answer. The Lord make you beloved of 
his children, and dreaded of his enemies. Men do willingly 
hear, readily believe, and gladly report every honourable thing of 
you, because they have embraced an opinion of your zeal in 
religion from your persecuted cradle. Good my Lord, nourish 
this constant zeal in your heart ; so shall you receive blessings 
from God, and true honour from man. These wars are holy : 
God has much honoured you for the time you have served in 
them. Attribute it, I pray you, to the honour of his Gospel. 
He will add more, if this be humbly taken. Go on in God's 
holy fence. Aspire to the best and bravest achievements, that 
your own may answer your ancestors' achievements of honour. 

But let not greater things than these deceive you ; less things 

p 



than these have deceived wise men. Your Christian wisdom will 
moderate all. If in haughtiest successes we bear them with lowly 
moderation, the honour is doubled ; and it chaseth away that mea- 
gre wretch, Envy, which treads upon the heels of every virtue and 
valorous act. But I am slipped, contrary to my promise, into 
my former faults of uttering my conceits. This is the strength 
of custom. So have I used where I honour and love, and there- 
fore cannot easily leave. Pardon me, I beseech you, if with my 
love, as great as any man's, I mix more care of you than most 
men. I am not so simple, but I could discern and follow the 
pleasing course of other men : but love loveth plainness ; and 
yet, if to confess a man's debt be honesty and no flattery, I may 
with honesty, and without flattery, say, I love you. I was glad 
to hear you returned safe ; and before the spoil divided, you 

yielded a general thanksgiving We pray for you within 

your own walls. The Lord Jesus have you in his holy safe- 
guard, and keep you ever his. 

" London, Barbican, your own house, 6th June, 1586. 

" Your good Lordship's to command, in singular 

affection, 
"Jonathan Stubbe, Scrivener." 

" My Lady was right glad to hear of your Lordship's 

good and honourable successes ; but imparting to her the post- 
scripts of your letter concerning her, I found them grievous and 
unseasonable for this estate of child-bed, and therefore myself to 
have faulted in doing it. Touching your armour, bed, and tent, 
I can witness for since Easter, that upon first request of them, 
she did her best to see them trussed up and made ready, going 
thereabout herself. Whereunto if any man have brought con- 
trary report, I must still avouch myself to say truth. I am sure 



my cousin Wingfield will say for these things, no matter between 
them hindered your business. The sudden and hard news of 
Grave, drove us into a sudden most sad and sorrow gravity, as 
well for the common cause, as also for your Lordship's self, 
whose town is thought to be next in the enemy's eye. If we 
knew here which way to do anything, we would. My Lady 
would gladly use any way to her Majesty, for strengthening and 
furnishing, but she knoweth not your pleasure, only therefore she 
can deal but in a general. The Lord bless you with safety and 
honour. Good my Lord, spare no friendship, not any man's 
travail to solicit this cause, that you may not want any good 
means, sith they concern not only the safety of your person, but 
the honourable achievement of your desire. Before the sealing 
hereof, we were lightened somewhat of those heavy news of 
Grave, so as now again we hope otherwise. We have a mint of 
news here at home ; among other coinage, it was said that your 
Lordship was hurt, and had lost eight hundred men in another 
encounter since Whitsun Tuesday. But I think all this was 
devised to quench the true good news of your Lordship. The 
Lord be your complete defence by the armour of Christian 
faith \" 

During the whole of the campaign. Sir John Norreis incessantly 
urged the necessity of drawing forth the English troops into the 
field, crossing the rivers to meet the enemy at an advantage, and 
continuing to hinder his passages and convoys, and intercept his 



^ From a letter in the possession of the late Lady Willoughby, copied by 
the Hon. G. Bertie Percy, and addressed " To the Right Honourable my 
Lord Willoughby of Willoughby and Eresby, &c. Governor of Bei'gen op 
Zoom, Wan Castle, and all her Majesty's forces, forts, and fortresses thereto 
appertaining in Brabant." 

p 2 



victuals, something in the manner of this last action of Wil- 
loughby's. He appeared to think the general system of opera- 
tions was far too languid ; and that the Prince of Parma going 
where he listed, found the towns not sufficiently animated by 
prompt succour and relief, and easily therefore dropping into his 
hands ; but the letter which sets forth his spirited plan, and 
complains that it was crossed by those who do not " know wars," 
does not mention the names of the persons who thus opposed 
him \ 

The next advantage gained by the English was the surprise of 
the town of Axtell or Axele ^. About a fortnight before it took 
place, Leicester heard through Grave (Count) Maurice, the son 
of the late Prince of Orange, that it was easily to be taken ; how- 
ever, to deceive the enemy, he sent five hundred men to Bergen 
op Zoom, where Lord Willoughby commanded, with some horse- 
men, and repaired thither himself, that all might imagine a great 
enterprise was meditated in those quarters. At midnight, how- 
ever, the darkness being favourable to his scheme, he shipped off 
the five hundred men he had brought thither to the real scene of 
action, the town of Axtell. " My Lord Willoughby," writes 
Lord Leicester to Queen Elizabeth, " would needs go with 
them;" and the following day, young Mr. Hatton and Mr. 
Umpton were bent on following them. Sir Philip Sidney was 
despatched another way with five hundred more, and all were 
ordered to "meet upon the water before Flushing, that it might 
be less noted." The success of the enterprise was speedy and 
complete ; at two o'clock in the morning they were masters of 

1 Letter from T. D'Oyley to Lord Burghley, Utrecht, June 24, 1586. 
State Paper Office, Holland. 

2 Camden's Elizabeth. 



ATTEMPT ON GRAVELIN. 



109 



the town ; and the five hundred soldiers within, who " came to 
the repulse, were overthrown, and most of them killed, though 
not one was lost on the English side\" 

In this gallant affair, the twenty brave men who first crossed 
the ditch, threw themselves into the very teeth of the enemy ; 
and being compelled to swim from the depth of the water, they 
thus unexpectedly passed the rampart, killed the sentinel that 
kept the gates, and the " cors de gard^," who ought to have been 
on the alert in the same service, but who, with a blind confidence 
in their security, had retired to rest, and were found lying in their 
beds ; and then rushing to the gates, broke them open, for the 
admission of the three thousand English standing without. Cap- 
tain Rynd, with the Dutch companies, was the first that en- 
tered ; Mr. Knollys, governor of Ostend, with my Lord Wil- 
loughby, the second ; and thirdly. Sir Philip Sidney brought in 
the last ^. 

Encouraged by this success at Axtell, Sir Philip Sidney made 
another nocturnal attempt on Gravelin, being deluded through a 
plot of the garrison, and narrowly escaped with his life. From 
Venlo, which he had gained, the Prince of Parma marched to 
Berck, where Colonel Morgan commanded, and laid siege to it. 
Leicester followed him thither, but, finding his force insufficient 



^ Letter from Lord Leicester to the Queen, dated Utrecht, 8th of July, 
1586. State Paper Office, Holland, vol. 34. 

2 Corps-de-garde, signifying here the guard or detachment on duty at the 
guard-house. 

2 Letter of Sir Thomas Cecil to his father, Lord Burghley, from Utrecht. 
State Paper Office, Holland. There is a difference in his account from that 
of Leicester, inasmuch as the latter says that Sidney was first, instead of 
third, to enter the town : at this distance of time it is impossible to decide 
the question. 



to compete with the enemy, he marched to Doesburg, with the 
intention of diverting him from the more important place ; and 
before the Prince of Parma could come to its relief, he had so 
vigorously assaulted it, that it surrendered into his hands \ 

On the twenty-second of September, an interesting affray took 
place, in which Lord Willoughby pre-eminently distinguished 
himself by valour and conduct ; and many others with him up- 
held the glory of the English name. Sir John Norreis and Sir 
William Stanley were that day reconciled ; the former coming 
forward to say, " Let us die together in her Majesty's cause." 
The enemy were desirous of throwing supplies into Zutphen ^, a 
place of which they entertained some doubts ; and a convoy 
accordingly, by the orders of the Prince of Parma, brought in a 
store, though an insufficient one, of provisions. A second^, 
commanded by George Cressiac (an Albanois), was despatched 
for the same purpose, the morning being foggy. Lord Wil- 
loughby, Lord Audley, Sir John Norreis, and Sir Philip Sidney, 
encountering the convoy in the fog, an engagement began. The 
Spaniards had the advantage of position, and had it in their 
power to discharge two or three volleys of shot upon the Eng- 
lish, who nevertheless stood their ground. Lord Willoughby 
himself, with his lance in rest, met with the leader, George 
Cressiac, engaged with, and (after a sharp combat) unhorsed him*. 

1 Camden's Elizabeth, p. 329. 

2 This town of Zutphen had been one especial scene of the cruelty and 
oppression of the Duke of Alva, Avho at one time, without distinction of age 
or sex, had put to the sword five hundred of the inhabitants who had sur- 
rendered to him ; his soldiers, too, when tired of slaughtering, casting num- 
bers into the waters of the Issel, by which river Zutphen stood. — Watson's 
Life of Phihp the Second. 

2 Stow's Annals, Camden's Elizabeth. ^ Ibid. 




GEORGE CRESSIAC UNHORSED. 



[To face page 110. 




SURRENDER OF GEORGE CRESSI.^C. 



To face page HI.] 



CRESSIAC's MAGNANIMITY. Ill 



He fell into a ditch, crying aloud to his victor, " I yield myself 
to you, for that you be a seemly knight ;" who, satisfied with 
this submission, and having other matters in hand, threw himself 
into the thickest of the combat, while the captive was conducted 
to the tent of the general. Lord Leicester \ 

The engagement was hot, and cost the enemy many lives, but 
few of the English were missing. Willoughby was extremely 
forward in the combat : at one moment his basses (or mantle) 
was torn from him, but re-captured. When all was over, Cap- 
tain Cressiac, being still in his Excellency's tent, refused to 
acknowledge himself prisoner to any but the knight to whom 
he had submitted on the field. There is something in this and 
the like incidents of the period, which recal us very agreeably to 
recollections of earlier days of chivalry and romance. Cressiac 
added, that if he were to see again the knight to whom he had 
surrendered himself, in the armour he then wore, he should im- 
mediately recognise him, and that to him, and him only, would 
he yield. Accordingly Lord Willoughby presenting himself 
before him in complete armour, he immediately exclaimed, " I 
yield to you," and was adjudged to him as his prisoner ^ 

It was in this skirmish that the gallant and lamented Sir Philip 
Sidney, the boast of his age, and the hope of many admiring 

' Stow's Annals. A misrepresentation of this transaction has arisen 
from an error on the part of the translator of Camden's original words on 
the subject ; he says that Lord Willoughby unhorsed a cornet of horse, under 
the leading of George Cressiac ; but a quotation from the Latin words of 
Camden will place the matter in its true light : " Angli equitum turmam 
sub Georgio Cressiaco Albano emissam profiigant, ipsum, equo a Willough- 
beio disjectum, capiunt, Hannibale Gonzaga, cum multis aliis, interfecto." 
Vide also Heame's edition, vol. iii. p. 462. 

2 Stow's Annals. 



friends, received the fatal wound, which cut short the thread of a 
brief but brilliant existence. During the whole day he had been 
one of the foremost in action, and once rushed to the assistance 
of his friend Lord Willoughby, on observing him " nearly sur- 
rounded by the enemy" and in imminent peril : after seeing him 
in safety, he continued the combat with great spirit, until he 
received a shot in the thigh, as he was remounting a second 
horse, the first having been killed under him \ Lord Leicester's 
letter to Lord Burghley will be more valuable than any second- 
hand description. 

" My Lord," writes Leicester, " our proceedings here, God be 
thanked, goeth well forward hitherto ; only a particular grief to 
myself hath happened by the hurt of my dear nephew. Sir Philip 
Sidney, in a skirmish upon Thursday last, in the morning, with a 
musket-shot ^ upon his thigh, three fingers above his knee, a very 
dangerous wound, the bone being broken in pieces ; but yet he 
is of good comfort, and the surgeons are in good hope of his 
life, if no ill accident come, as yet there is not. He slept this 
night four hours together, and did eat with good appetite after- 
ward. I pray God save his life, and I care not how lame he be. 
There was at this the skirmish only two hundred and fifty Eng- 
lish horse, and most of them the best of the camp, unawares to 
me ; but, this mishap set aside, there was not such an encounter 
this forty years, for, besides the horse, there were but three hun- 
dred footmen. The enemy — twelve hundred horse, the whole 
flower of them, and three thousand footmen, all placed and pre- 
pared beforehand These few maintained the fight two 



1 Zoucli's Life of Sidney. 

2 The bullet entered so deeply, that it could not be found till after death. 
Zouch's Life of Sidney. 



hours together ; many of theirs killed, few of ours ; none of 
name hurt or killed, but Philip hurt. 

'* The Marquis del Guasto, general of the cavalry, was there ; 
Captain George Bato, lieutenant to the Marquis ; the Count 
Hannibal Gonzago, killed, with three others, whose names we 
know not, but they had cassocks all embroidered and laced with 
silver and gold. 

*' Captain George Cressiac, captain of the guard, and of all 
the Albanoises, taken prisoner by my Lord Willoughby, and 
overthrown by him to the ground first. 

" There was too many, indeed, at this skirmish of the better 
sort, but I was offended when I knew it, but could not fetch 
them back ; but since they have all so well escaped (save my 
dear nephew), I would not for ten thousand pounds but they had 
been there, since they have all now that honour they have. For 
j^our Lordship never heard so desperate charges as they gave 
upon the enemy in the face of their muskets, and the noble man- 
ner Sir John Norreys, Sir William Russell, and Sir Thomas 
Perrot, Sir Philip Sidney, and others led still, and divers their 
horses being killed, stepped aside and changed their horses, and 
to it again. And notwithstanding all those troops, he did not 
put in one waggon, save thirty that got in in the night. These 
noblemen and gentlemen brought with them three comets of the 
enemy's, taken from the enemy, which was no small dishonour 
to them. 



" R. Leycester 



\ »5 



The romantic valour displayed in the above engagement was 
certainly deserving of reward ; and Lord Leicester accordingly, 

1 Letter of Lord Leicester to Lord Burghley, September 24th, 1586. 
State Paper Office, Holland, vol. 36. 

Q 




to show his sense of merit, and " for his own honour's " sake, 
conferred in his camp the dignity of a Knight- Banneret on the 
Earl of Essex, the Lord Willoughby, the Lord Audley, and the 
Lord North ; and knighted Sir Henry Goodyere, captain of the 
guard, Sir Henry Norreys (brother of Sir John), Sir John Wink- 
field or Wingfield, &c. &c.' 

The brave and amiable Sir Philip Sidney was not, however, 
spared to the wishes of his uncle. The wound which he had 
received proved mortal ; and, although not immediately, was not 
less certainly fatal. His patience during the long period of 
twenty- five days that he survived his hurt, the spirit of religious 
devotion and of manly courage, which characterised these last 
circumstances of his life, were the admiration of all who sur- 
rounded his dying bed. He had been removed from the field of 
battle to a place called Arnam, where Leicester visited him on 
the 15th of October; and where^ on the 17th of October he 
expired, attended in his last moments by his wife, the daughter 
of Sir Francis Walsingham, and dying in the arms of his friend, 
Mr. William Temple. His consciousness and happy resignation 
remained unimpaired long after all physical strength and even 
vital heat appeared to have abandoned his sinking frame. Being 
requested, when speechless, to evince to the bystanders that he 
still retained inward joy and hope in God, he stretched forth his 
hand on high ; and when sight failed him, he again yielded to 
his friends' wishes that he would show he could yet join in their 
prayers, by clasping his hands on his breast in the attitude of 
supplication. Thus he gradually and peacefully sunk to rest^. 

> Stow's Annals, p. 1256. - Stow's Annals, printed 1592, 

" This account of his dying moments is afforded by Mr. Giffard, who ap- 
pears to have been summoned by himself to afford him consolation in that 



LEICESTER AT THE HAGUE. 115 



The loss of this promising kinsman was severely felt by Lord 
Leicester, who, on his return to England afterwards, gave him a 
splendid funeral at St. Paul's. In the mean while he vigorously 
assaulted Zutphen, took the island in the river, and (in it) the 
principal fort. During his attack on the lesser fort, an English- 
man of the name of Stanley ^ distinguished himself by a singular 
act of valour. He caught hold of the pike of a Spaniard who 
was charging, and held it so tight, that he was drawn up by it 
into the fort, where his unexpected appearance so alarmed the 
Spaniards, that, in the utmost dismay, they deserted and left it in 
the hands of Leicester. He did not, however, deem it necessary 
to besiege Zutphen in form ; for, it being the depth of winter, he 
considered it sufficiently protected by the garrisons in the neigh- 
bouring towns. At Deventer was Sir William Stanley with 
twelve hundred foot ; Rowland York defended the sconces of 
Zutphen with eight hundred foot and one hundred horse ; at 
Doesburg lay Sir John Boroughs with as many foot and double 
the number of horse ; and on the eastern side, English forces 
occupied Lochem, Sherenberg, and Doticum -. Unexpected and 
most treacherous conduct, however, — conduct which disgraced the 
English name, — disappointed the General's hopes, and destroyed 
the security in which he imagined he had placed the town of 
Zutphen. 

Having seen the departure of the Prince of Parma into winter 
quarters, Leicester returned to the Hague, where " the Estates " 

hour. He is probably the Mr. George GifFord or Giffard mentioned by 
Anthony Wood as a noted preacher. — See Zouch's Life of Sidney. 

^ Edward Stanley, not the one who afterwards betrayed Deventer. — Cam- 
den's Ehzabeth, p. 330. 

2 Camden's Elizabeth, p. 330. 

Q 2 



received him with many complaints of mismanagement, and of 
various grievances. At this juncture he had made up his mind 
to go over into England ; so after doing his best to appease them 
with fair words and promises, and taking steps for the govern- 
ment of the Provinces, he sailed for his native country on the 3rd 
of December, 1586 \ 

Leicester had left a certain commission of limited authority to 
Sir John Norris at the Hague, but a larger one to Sir William 
Stanley, at which the former thought himself much aggrieved, 
and, in short but forcible terms, complains of this " hard dealing, 
especially as Stanley refused to obey any thing he ordered," in a 
letter to Sir Francis Walsingham, dated December 9th, 1586 : 
" 7/"," says he, " it prove no hindrance to the service, it shall 
nothing trouble me, for I desire that my doings may show what 
I am ; neither will I seek by indirect means to calumniate him 
or any other, as hath been done by me, but will let them show 
themselves ^" The event proved that Norreys's doubts and 
suspicions were well grounded, and that he who " refused to 
obey" him, was not injured by his doubts and (probably) suspi- 



cions. 



Stanley had been placed at Deventer, even before Leicester 
left the Low Countries for England ; for on the 20th of October 
we find him writing to his Excellency on the state of affairs 
there, and rather triumphantly speaking of a sally made by the 
enemy on the 9th, and of the effectual check which he had been 
concerned in giving them \ However, on the 19th of January, 



^ Camden's Elizabeth. 

2 Letter of Sir John Norris State. Paper Offlee, Holland, vol. 37. 

3 Letter of Sir William Stanley to his Excellency. British Museum, 
Cotton MSS., Galba, c. x. fol. 71. 



1586-7, he and Rowland York most traitorously delivered over 
the town of Deventer, and the forts before Zutphen, into the 
hands of the Prince of Parma \ 

Sir John Norreys, who, after the letter just quoted, writes 
again to Lord Burghley, on the 21st of January, 1586-7, thus 
details the circumstances of an unexampled treachery, which 
cast a stain on the fair fame of the English in these countries, and 
was as deliberately as cruelly planned. " It doth not," he writes, 
" a little grieve us, to have this lamentable news to write unto 
your Lordship, of the traitorous delivering over of the town of 
Deventer, and the forts before Zutphen, by Sir William Stanley 
and Rowland York, into the hands of the Prince of Parma, 
effected the 19th of this present in this sort. Sir William Stanley 
three days before the delivery of the town did possess himself of 
a great tower joining to one of the gates of the town, wherein he 
placed all his wild Irish, keeping from that day forward con- 
tinually his men in arms, till the same 19th, at five of the clock 
in the morning, he came to the town-house, whence he took the 
keys of the gates by force, and opening the gates of the tower, 
himself, with five or six more, went out on horseback, about 
twenty score off, where he found ' Taxis ' with seven hundred 
foot of the enemy, and some horse ; presently he brought them 
in, and did put them in battayll in the market-place, and then 
disarmed all the inhabitants^." 

It appears that York was a man of profligate character, who 
had received, or fancied he received, some injury at Leicester's 
hands ; and though lately apparently reconciled, yet burned to 
revenge his former disgrace, taking the opportunity of thus de- 



^ Camden's Elizabeth, p. 397. 

2 Sir J. Norris's letter, State Paper Office, HollauJ, vol. 40. 



livering up his charge to the enemy ; and of inciting Stanley, 
formerly distinguished for courage and fidelity, to be as guilty as 
himself. If the desire of vengeance, and bribes, had their effect 
on this mean and malicious heart, Stanley's must have been a 
feeble one indeed, to have been worked upon by assurances, that 
in England he was not only accused, but found guilty of a share 
in some late conspiracy \ and by so shallow an artifice to have 
been led on to forget every tie of virtue and honour ^. To return 
to his treachery. The miserable inhabitants, thus more than for- 
saken, actually yielded up to a merciless foe, were suddenly 
deprived of home, of allies, and of all powers of defence. 

" Sir Edmond Gary's company, who were not made acquainted 
with the treason, being assembled together, refused to serve the 
traitors, and so were suffered to come away. The whole country 
remains wonderfully amazed at this so strange an accident, not 
knowing who to trust unto. Some few of the Protestants saved 
them over the walls ; the rest remained at the devotion of a 
cruel enemy, a most pitiful event of their fortune, who, to avoid 
the tyranny of the Spaniard, put themselves into our hands, who 
are now the cause of their utter destruction." 

Norreys continues to urge, that if her Majesty desires to pro- 
tect these unfortunate provinces, or to save them from the power 
of Spain, she must now give them some extraordinary encourage- 
ment, or "fear will drive them to consent to their own ruin." 

All the plans of the campaign were necessarily changed. It 
had been the intention to march to the succour of Wesel, where 
the citizens, it had been hoped, would have been happy to ally 
themselves with the English ; but now compelled, as they (the 



Babington's plot. 



2 Camden's Elizabeth, p. 397. 



English) were, to augment the garrisons in all the towns, no 
troops were left to take the field, and the aspect of affairs was 
most discouraging, unless some effort were made, sufficient to 
prevent the Spaniards from prevailing, — a thing, in Norris's 
opinion, more than possible, " for his (the Spaniard's) case is as 
miserable as may be, their men of war decayed, their towns de- 
populated and ready to starve, their merchants ruined, and all 
trade left off; neither is it possible for them to continue it long, 
if any head be made against them. These treasons do give them 
a little reputation with the people, or else their credit was di- 
minishing apace." He hopes however for " her Majesty's reso- 
lution to continue her last year's charge with some increase ;" 
adding, that the English soldiers were but ill supplied in a coun- 
try where provisions were dear, and where they had now main- 
tained themselves four months unpaid ; that they were exposed 
to all the secret bribes and persuasions of the Prince of Parma's 
emissaries, whom he unwearingly employed in this very service. 
Still Norris hopes and urges : " indeed, if some English had 
been treacherous, many Spaniards had been cruel. If English 
troops were ill supplied, so were the Spanish ; and, on the whole, 
he seems to have been of opinion, that the cause of the oppressed 
inhabitants of the Low Countries against their tyrannical masters 
was yet worth a struggle ^" . . . . " Sir William Stanley," he re- 
marks, " was doubted a good while since ; but my Lord (Leices- 
ter) had given him so large an authoriiy, and the council and 
myself so little, as we knew not how to remedy it." 

It is affirmed by Camden, that neither York nor Stanley bene- 



^ Sir John Norris's letter to Lord Burghley, dated Utrecht, January 21, 
1586-7, in the State Paper Office, Holland correspondence, vol. 40. 




fited by the wretched part they had acted. The following con- 
temporary letter proves the truth of his assertion, that York was 
poisoned, and died miserably. It is extracted from a document 
forwarded to England : " Hawes Corporate to Sir Thomas Shir- 
ley's troop of horse, coming from Deventer, where he was pri- 
soner, ascertaineth the death of York, on Sunday last, to have 
been very miserable, consuming to the bones ; that all the hair 
of his head and beard fell off ; some say it was the French sick- 
ness, others poyson. The Monday following came his lieutenant, 
named Boncer, from the camp, and Edmund York's younger 
son, with a convoy of money and victuals ; and the same night, 
as it was thought, somewhat in drink, came to Co. Herman, 
commanding there, who making some difficulty to let York's 
horses pass, as also some difference about his goods, the Count 
being at supper, gave him no answer to his contentment ; he 
grew in choler, and drew his sword. The Co. page, with his 
rapier, thrust him through ; behind him the Capt. rose, and he 
received divers wounds, and being carried into the street, ended 
there his life wretchedly. His brother, having received many 
mortal wounds, yet liveth, but, as it is thought, will not scape. 
They have not yet vouchsafed York's funeral, but leave his 
carcase in as vile sort as his life deserved, together with the 
others. Thus York ended a Catholic as he lived a traitor, hav- 
ing before his death received sacraments, unction, and all \" . . . 
Camden also informs us, that Stanley sought employment in 
Spain, hoping to be rewarded for his past services, and volunteer- 
ing them in future for the invasion of Ireland ; but he found too 



^ " Occurrents pour Deventer," the 2 1st of February, a docuraeut sent 
into England by Captain Kassie, 22nd of February, 1587. From a copy by 
the Honourable Charles Bertie Percy. 



LORD BUCKHURST's MISSION. 121 

late that he was distrusted, as was natural, and could obtain 
neither honour nor credit from those who, knowing of what he 
was capable, were unwilling to repose confidence in a traitor. 

These transactions, however, greatly incensed the States against 
the English, and in a letter to Elizabeth they set forth many 
complaints of Lord Leicester, and of the credulity which had 
caused him to be so easily duped by the artifices of designing 
men. To examine the matter, and to sound the Netherlanders, 
the Queen sent over Lord Buckhurst ^ (one of the Privy Council), 
and with him Norris and Bartholomew Clerk, that she might 
be duly and faithfully informed of the real position of affairs ^. 
In the mean while we find Lord Willoughby in London (most 
probably he had gone over with Leicester), and writing from his 
house in the Barbican, on the 21st of March, 1587, to Sir 
Francis Walsingham, touching many affairs of the Low Coun- 
tries ; the one, the exchange of a certain prisoner of note, lately 
taken from the Spaniards, Don Juan de Castillie, for whom the 
ransom of four thousand guilders was offered. Willoughby ap- 
pears anxious that his enlargement should prove the means of 
obtaining freedom for a Monsieur Teligny, in whom he has 
interested himself, and for whose sake he is willing to forego 
any advantage that might accrue to him by the liberation of the 
Spaniard. He begs his " cousin Vere may have the ordering of 
this matter;" and disclaims all or any right in Teligny "to do 
him favour." In the same letter we also find his first mention 
of a painful annoyance which had arisen in his government of 
Bergen op Zoom, and which afterwards proved a great drawback 

^ Thomas Sackville, afterwards Earl of Dorset. 
2 Camden's Elizabeth, p. 398. 

R 



to the unity and strength of the English army. He complains 
bitterly of the conduct of one Mr. Morgan, who (probably having 
in his absence some temporary command) he seems to think had 
usurped the government of the place. Morgan had undoubtedly 
claimed a certain authority ; for, on the 14th of February, after 
Leicester's departure for England, he addressed him on the sub- 
ject of a small body of men, which he desired to have at Bergen 
op Zoom, to fill the place of the sick and disabled; and inter- 
ceded in behalf of a Captain Enge and others, who were 
deserving of reward, and were many of them what he terms tall, 
or very tall men, meaning well versed in their profession. 
" Touching myself," he continues, " I doubt not but your Excel- 
lency will have some consideration of me. I have written unto 
Sir John Norris, for my own company and one other company, 
and a company of horse, for that I would gladly have none here 
but in the Queen's pay. The States had thought to have con- 
veyed men into this town by policy, and have sent hither one 
company, that is the Admiral of Zierikzee, in Zealand, that was 
lieutenant-colonel to Sir Philip Sidney ; but, finding out their 
policy, I do mind to take no more, and to put him out, and do 
cause a very strong guard night and day, and every officer to go 
with his halberd. Grave Maurice and the Grave of Holbeck 
sent a company with a patten to lie in the old sconce at the 
head ; but I disappointed them, and gave the captain a sharp 
answer, and will not suffer them to come in that fort, nor yet in 
the town \" 

This might be all good and worthy service ; but Lord Wil- 

' Sir Thomas Morgan to the Earl of Leicester, Bergen op Zoom, February 
14, 1586-7. British Museum, Cottonian Collection, Galba, c. xi. f. 272. 



loughby was irritated and annoyed at acts which he considered 
insults to himself. " You may perceive," he writes to Sir F. 
Walsingham, " some glances of Morgan's government, who in- 
sulteth me much, ofFereth to send out of the town my servant 
Buck's company, and to imprison my steward ; and not there- 
with contented, affirmeth (with wounds and blood) that he is 
Governor, and that he would not else meddle with it. But how 
it standeth with martial proceedings to have two governors of one 
town, I know not. For myself, I was placed there by my Lord 
Leicester, resigned to me by the singular love of your late 
honourable son-in-law \ authorised under his hand and seal, well 
allowed of from her Majesty, as I understood from you, and till 
this time never orderly cast or degraded, till Mr. Morgan, finding 
his afternoon's time, knowing the States' humours and reports, 
ofFereth this wrong, not in words only, but under his hand, 
scraping out whatsoever might not fit his glorious humour, as 
you may see by this passport which I send you." This passport 
of Morgan's he begs Walsingham to return, for that he purposed 
"to attend my Lord of Leicester therewith;" expresses his 
wish to " use orderly means rather than violent courses, blame- 
worthy in all men, unless, destitute of lawful means, they be 
driven thereto for repair of their honour ; and indignantly asserts 
that it has been his fortune, though Morgan disdain him, to com- 
mand such as far exceed him in parentage, true virtue, modera- 
tion, and judgment^." This was not the only time they were 
brought into collision. 

During Leicester's stay in England, Lord Buckhurst proceeded 

* Sir Philip Sidney. 

2 Lord Willoughby to Sir F. Walsingham, Barbican, March 21, 1586 7. 
State Paper Office, Holland, vol. 41. 

R 2 



124 ILL-TREATMENT OF BUCKHURST. 

actively with his commission of inquiry in Holland, and did good 
service in pacifying the dissensions there, and compounding the 
quarrels between the Dutch Count Hohenlo and the two Nor- 
rises, to " the gladdening of all such as wish well to the state of 
these countries \" 

Leicester, in the mean while, appears to have been somewhat 
impatient of the state of suspense in which he remained, and of 
the uncertainty as to whether or not the Queen intended to send 
him again to the Low Countries. On the 19th of May he wrote 
to Sir Francis Walsingham, and begged that if he was to be 
employed, some one might be sent before him to set things in 
order against his coming ; and urges that if Sir John Norris is 
to be recalled, a proper person should go over to receive his 
charge (for which he names Sir William Pelham), and that Lord 
Willoughby should be sent with him to take the charge of the 
horsemen ". 

Lord Buckhurst's was a thankless office : he toiled earnestly 
in the Queen's service ; and in a letter to Lord Burghley, from 
the Hague, pathetically asserts, that if ever he did, might, or 
should do any acceptable service to her Majesty, it was in the 
stay and appeasing of those countries, " even ready at my coming 
to have cast off all good respect towards us, and to have entered 
even into some desperate course. In the mean while I am hardly 
thought of by her Majesty, and in her opinion condemned before 
mine answer be understood or heard, which grieveth me not a 
little ; and therefore I beseech your Lordship to help to be a 



1 Extract from a Letter, in the State Paper Office, from Mr. Wilkes to 
Sir Francis Walsingham, dated Hague, April 8, 1587. Holland, vol. 42. 

2 Letter of Lord Leicester, State Paper Office, Holland, vol. 42. 



WALSINGHAM TO WILKES. 125 



mean that I may return, and not thus to lose her Majesty's favour 
for my good desert, wasting in her service, mind, body, and 
wealth \" 

The Queen was certainly displeased with the measures of 
Lord Buckhurst, and with his diligent investigation of Leicester's 
errors ^. In warlike affairs the latter does not appear to have 
been inefficient ; but it may be questionable whether he had the 
art of conciliation, and the judgment necessary in a situation so 
influential as that which he had lately held. He was certainly 
wanting in discernment, when he preferred Stanley to the brave 
and well-tried Norris ; and now it seems that his return to 
command was to involve the recal of the latter, and that he was 
inclined to dislike those whom he considered as bearing a friendly 
regard towards Norris ; at least such was the opinion of the 
secretary Walsingham, who in a letter to Mr. Wilkes warns him 
of the General's mislike, on the ground of his professed good-will 
towards Norris, adding, " I doubt not but that you will carry 
yourself so wisely and warily there (in the Low Countries), as 
no advantage may be taken against you^." 

Leicester desired, however, to make his peace with the Pro- 
vinces, and on the last day of May, writes to them the following 
declaration of good- will : " Qu'il continuera toujours sa ' bonne 

^ Lord Buckhurst's letter to Lord Burghley, Hague, May 27, 1587. 
State Paper Office, Holland, vol. 42. 

2 Camden's Elizabeth, p. 398. 

3 See a letter in the State Paper Office, from Sii' Francis Walsingham to 
Mr. Wilkes, one of the Council of Estate in the Low Countries, in which he 
tells him if Lord Leicester goes over, he will, according to his desire, procure 
his revocation, seeing Lord Leicester is ill affected towards him, chiefly 
owing to his good-will towards Norreys. — State Paper Office, Holland, vol. 
42. 



126 



WILLOUGHBY S DEMANDS. 



volonte avec les dits pays (les etats), oubliant de bon coeur le 
passe, pour n'apporter prejudice a I'etat commun ^' " 

The command which was thus offered to Lord Willoughby, 
that is, the command of the cavalry contingently on Leicester's 
resumption of power, must have been much to his taste ; but 
before he accepted it he insisted upon certain powers and 
privileges, which were not unreasonable requirements. In the 
first place, he demanded that his commission should be as large 
and complete in all points of authority as Sir John Norreys' 
had been before him. Likewise that he should fully possess 
all "pays and entertainments which Sir John either had or 
ought to have in virtue of his office," seeing that his expenses 
would be greater, as " they would expect more from one of his 
coat." 

He desired to have a regiment of English foot, a private band 
of foot, a company of two hundred lances, all in her Majesty's 
pay, and of like number as Sir John ; for he argues that such 
outward testimonies add to the credit and dignity of a com- 
mander, as much as their abridgment must diminish them. 

He desired to have allowance for a chaplain, a chief secretary, 
a physician, and a surgeon ; and that he might be allowed to 
continue his government of Bergen op Zoom, in like sort as the 
Count of Hohenlo did that of Gestondenburgh, and Sir William 
Russell (being lieutenant-general of the cavalry) did his of 
Flushing ; and ended by requiring letters of credit to the States 
(for full pay and contentment, as well for the entertainment of 
his government as of his company of horse), with restitution of 
the rights and duties appertaining to the government of Bergen 



State Paper Office, Holland. 



DEPARTURE OF NORREYS AND WILKES. 12? 



op Zoom, and (alluding to Morgan's late assumptions) for such 
as have been or shall be received by any which used or usurped 
the government there \ 

We next find Willoughby at Middleburgh, on the 11th of July 
(where Leicester, being now re-appointed, had arrived on the 
27th of June), having landed at Flushing the day before. Nor- 
reys had previously returned to England, being in London on the 
11th of July, and on the 16th at his paternal home at Rycote. 
He and Mr. Wilkes appear to have set out together, and to have 
caused some surprise by their departure without waiting for an 
interview with the Lord General. On the 2nd of July it was 
not known, writes Mr. Lloyd to the Chief Secretary at home, 
" where they be, and whither they go ; all men stand in expecta- 
tion, and many deliver bold speeches of them, wondering how 
they dare depart hence (the Low Countries) before they had 
spoken with her Majesty's Lieutenant^." Probably their con- 
sciousness of his "mislike" may account for this avoidance; 
however, Wilkes was sent to the Fleet. 

Leicester was as soon as possible on the alert. On the 3rd of 
July, the Count Hohenlo, with such forces as could be assem- 
bled, marched towards a fort near the Maese, and made a bridge 
over that river, and there esconced himself with some waggons. 
On the 4th, the enemy entertaining the most sanguine hopes of 
success, and of being able to " beat and drown all the English," 
as well as to take the bridge and ordnance, advanced with con- 
fidence to assail them, but were driven back with considerable 



^ From a paper in the State Paper Office, Holland, vol. 44, called " The 
L. Wyllowbyes requestes concerning hys Colonnelshyp, 4 Jany. 1587." 
2 See Mr. Lloyd's letter, Holland, vol. 44, State Paper Office. 



128 RE-INSTATEMENT OF LEICESTER. 

loss, and with little damage on the other side ; they also lost in 
the skirmish some persons of note \ 

Thus was Leicester re-instated in his command, again appear- 
ing on the field of the Low Country war ; whilst Lord Buck- 
hurst's zeal in attempting to trace his errors was rewarded by 
the loss of the Queen's countenance, and a kind of imprisonment 
in his own house, after his return to England, for some months ^. 

Lord Buckhurst keenly felt this withdrawal of the Queen's fa- 
vour, and describes with much heaviness and sorrow the pain he 
experienced by the deprivation. He also gave answers to twenty 
different complaints made by Leicester against him : one of these 
was, that he had lightly passed over certain slanders against 
Lord Willoughby, but which he positively denied he had ever 
heard mentioned^. This took place whilst Leicester continued 
in Flanders, where we must again seek him, still actively en- 
gaged in a war, in which though nothing of lasting importance 
seems to have been secured, yet the exertions of individual 
valour and determined courage were as bright and dazzling as 
any that do honour to English annals. 

Lord Willoughby's next letter is dated from Ostend, the 23rd 
of July, at a very anxious moment. He speaks of an advantage 
gained by the enemy in the possession of a fort before Sluys, an 

1 Lord Willoughby to Lord Burghley, Middleburgh, July 11, 1587- State 
Paper Office, Holland, vol. 44. The number of the enemy was "fourteen 
hundred horse and four thousand foot ; and m the skirmish were slain 
Hautlefenne, with some others esteemed of worth, and a brave Italian, 
thought to be the son of Chaplain Vitelli or Spinola." 

2 Camden's EUzabeth, p. 398. 

^ Lord Buckhurst's letter, State Paper Office, dated July 24, 1587 ; and 
a document in the same office, called " Twenty different complaints made by 
Lord Leicester against Lord Buckhurst." 



DEFENCE OF SLUYS. 129 



important town, then besieged by the Duke of Parma ; and 
although it had cost him dear, yet still it was a point secured. 
On hearing of it. Lord Leicester came to Flushing, and " making," 
says Willoughby, "diligent preparation, sent my Lord Marshal 
and myself, with such forces as were ready, towards Ostend the 
next evening ; but, both wind and weather being altogether con- 
trary, we were forced, after stopping off two tides, to return 
from whence we came. We purposed then to have attempted 
Issendonck fort, and to have landed the rest of our company at 
Ostend ; but, being not able any ways to get conveniently to 
shore, we returned, more willing than able to annoy the enemy." 
On arriving at Flushing, the news had reached Lord Leicester 
that Sluys was in great distress, two breaches being made in the 
walls, and a furious attack commenced ; but these same breaches 
were most valiantly defended, the one by Sir Roger Williams, 
Captain Huntley, and Captain Baskerville ; the other by Vere, 
with three Dutch captains of great valour. Another place was 
undermined, but as courageously defended by Captain Uvedale 
and others ; and, indeed, it seems that the energetic attacks of a 
powerful enemy were only to be equalled by the undismayed 
bravery of the besieged. The former by mine surprised a small 
ravelin at the West Port, but were immediately compelled to 
abandon it. Night brought no cessation of hostilities. Many 
gentlemen of English birth, who fought as volunteers, greatly 
distinguished themselves ^ ; and by this gallant defence, it is to be 
hoped, may have redeemed the honour of their country, so lately 
perilled by unworthy traitors. 

^ Lord Willoughby, from whose letter this account of the siege of Sluys is 

taken, mentions especially, " Capt. Shot, Lieutenant Merrick, Mr. Sellinger, 

Mr. Gorge, and one Foulke, cousin to my Lord Zouch." 

S 



The dangerous condition of Sluys induced Lord Leicester to 
hasten his forces to Ostend on the 19th. There were many dif- 
ficulties, however, from the want of means of providing for the 
army, and the bad and dangerous passages, which hindered it 
from reaching Sluys overland ; this the General and Council 
had determined should be undertaken by Lord Willoughby, and 
others joined in command with him ; whilst a second detach- 
ment of English and Dutch, under the Vice-Admiral of Zierikzee 
and Colonel Morgan, should attempt to enter the river. " His 
Excellency's arrival yesternight," writes Lord Willoughby, "did 
much rejoice us, where he hath all this day used the best means 
necessary to set us forward, though not so wholly as he could 
have wished. To-morrow, by God's grace, we march forward 
to join with the enemy ; the success whereof I refer to the 
Almighty, to whose protection I leave you." 

The anxiety of the moment may be imagined by the postscript 
added to this letter: "Since this, advertisement has come that 
Sluys hath given forth its last despairing signals, if it be not 
speedily succoured ^" 

The morning of the ensuing day, the 24th, saw the de- 
parture of the succours above mentioned. They were to go 
by Blankenburgh ; and the following account, from an eye- 
witness on board "his Excellency's ship," lying before the town, 
is too descriptive to be omitted. 

" This Monday, in the morning, are marched from this town, 
under the conduct of the Lord Marshal, the Lord Willoughby, 
Sir William Russell, and the Lord North, about four thousand 



^ Letter of Lord Willoughby to Sir Francis Walsingham, State Paper 
Office, Holland, vol. 44. 



foot, and scarce four hundred horse, well appointed, and as reso- 
lute men as ever came into field. They are gone towards the 
enemy so confidently, as they give great hopes of better success 
than is looked. It pitieth many honest minds to see so many 
brave gentlemen and willing soldiers to engage themselves with 
so great disadvantage against an experimented enemy, who 
hath prepared himself for their coming, and drawn unto him 
about nine thousand foot, and well near three thousand good 
horse \" 

Whether this succour, however, was sent too late, or was 
too unequal through so many disadvantages, the Prince of 
Parma here prevailed ; and after a most valiant and well- 
sustained defence, the garrison found themselves obliged to 
yield Sluys into his hands, and Leicester was compelled to 



retire ^. 



Bergen op Zoom was apparently a kind of head-quarters to 
the English ; and by a sortie from thence, shortly after, the men 
of the garrison won a great prize, about seventeen or eighteen 
men of note amongst the enemy. On the 12th of August, Lord 
Willoughby writes to Sir F. Walsingham, that the passages were 
all stopped, so as to prevent the return of the men with their 
prize ; and he adds, that Lord Leicester having intelligence 
thereof, and of the great force collecting by the Spaniards at 
Hoghstraat in Brabant, thought fit to depute Willoughby and 
others, with some companies of foot and horse, to clear the road, 
and, if possible, to draw them forth into an ambuscade. With 



^ Letter from Mr. Francis Needham to Sir Francis Walsingham, dated 
July 24, 1587. State Paper Office, Holland, vol. 44. 
2 Camden's Elizabeth, p. 399. 



132 



REPORT OF PEACE. 



Willoughby went Sir Richard Bingham, *' a man," says he, " very 
welcome to the army, and not least to myself. The same day he 
came, before he had reposed himself, we being then ready to 
march, I intreated him to accompany us, which he most willingly 
did." Although the Spaniards could not be drawn into the 
ambuscade, the English troops succeeded in securing the pass- 
ages, so that the captors and the captives arrived in safety the 
next morning. Amongst the latter were Mons. de Tornhese, 
nephew to the famous Cardinal Granvelle and to Mons. Cham- 
pagnie ; Martin de la Failla, a merchant of great wealth ; a 
doctor of physic to Camillo del Monte ; with some Spanish and 
Italian gentlemen \ 

In the mean while both sides looked for an accession of forces, 
and hopes were again raised in each army, though the poor 
country, torn with all this intestine dissension, was, as Lord 
Willoughby expressed it a short time before, in a very '' tottering 
state ^." Yet the idea of making a peace with the Spaniards, 
and thereby sealing the oppression of the Netherlanders, was not 
to be contemplated without pain ; and when he speaks of a 
report of its likelihood, which had been " bruited " among the 
enemy, he adds, "If we had the Indian treasure, I would their 
hope were frustrated^." The jealousies and discontents too, 
which still continued between Leicester and the Estates ^, must 
have been a further hindrance to a war, wherein Elizabeth, if she 



^ Lord Willoughby to Sir Francis Walsingham, 12th of August, 1587. 
State Paper Office, Holland, vol. 45. 

2 Ibid, dated July, 1587- 

^ Another letter from Willoughby, 20th of August, 1587. State Paper 
Office, Holland. 

* Camden's Elizabeth, p. 399. 



willoughby's enterprises. 133 

did not waste much gold, lavished at least the exertions and toil, 
the danger and blood, of some of the bravest of her subjects. At 
one time we find the deputies of the Provinces coming to implore 
Leicester's countenance, and " ' supplier son Excellence de mon- 
trer faveur au pays afflige. II repond, que personne au monde 
n'aimoit plus que lui les Etats ; mais que les indignites qu'on 
lui avoit fait touchoient I'honneur de sa Majeste." They were 
jealously alarmed at putting too much power into his hands, and 
he equally jealous of any subjection to them^, neither party how- 
ever meaning to come to an open rupture. 

In the mean while Lord Willoughby remained with the gar- 
rison at Bergen op Zoom, and made more than one bold attempt 
against the Spanish army still hovering around his post. One of 
these enterprises, according to his own account, miscarried, and 
the English experienced some loss by the fall of their waggons 
into the river, carrying with them their " engines and artificial 
fires ;" but in a sally he made against the Spanish Marquis del 
Guasto, having only one hundred horse against fifteen hundred, 
he had the satisfaction of obliging the enemy to retire ; who, 
either harassed by a night march, followed by a trifling success, 
or distrusting to join hands with the English for fear of their 
foot, retreated before this inferior force, and left them masters of 
the day ^. 

On the morrow, Willoughby addressed a letter of earnest en- 
treaty to the General Lord Leicester, requesting that he might 
be allowed to accept the challenge which the Marquis del Guasto 

^ Document in the State Paper Office, Holland, September 11, 1587- 
2 Camden's Elizabeth, p. 399. 

2 Lord Willoughby to Sir Francis Walsingham, September 22, 1587- 
State Paper Office, Holland. 



(stung by the late disaster) had that morning sent him ; but an 
extract from his own letter will best speak his feelings : 

" May it please your Excellencie, having this morning re- 
ceived from the Marquis, by my Trumpet (who went thither to 
ransom my prisoners, upon his discourse of the journey), a chal- 
lenge to fight with us from two hundred lances to thirty, sent, as 
I take it, to repair his honour for the last day. Though our 
desires would have led us presently into the same, yet consider- 
ing our duties to your Excellencie, we would not omit most 
humbly to crave this favour (which we shall think to exceed all 
other whatsoever), that we may have leave to accomplish the 
same. And because we would not have brought in question the 
whole reputation we hazard of our English nation in general, that 
it may please your Excellencie to commit the same in particular 
to us of this private garrison, to whom this challenge is addressed, 
and that, if it shall please you, underhand, because he taketh 
upon him to do it without the Duke's authority, the loss will be 
the less, the honour the more. The person opposed against my- 
self is the Marquis. If my service, while I live, may in any 
sort requite the honour done me herein, I shall double all my 
professions already made for the performance of all duties, 
hoping your Excellencie will not refuse me any so great occasion 
of honour. The Marquis engageth his honour for the sincere 
performance thereof, hasteneth the time, because of the rising of 
his camp. And because it is doubtful whether he will urge the 
same any further or no, we also humbly beseech you, that in 
respect of further occasion given, if we presume further to go, 
that then hereafter, upon declaration of such forcible reasons 
touching our honour and reputation, we may leave your Ex- 
cellencie satisfied from further displeasure against us 



willoughby's request. 135 

Commending my service most hmnbly to your Excellencie, I 
take my leave. 

" Your Excellencie's most humble and faithful, 

" P. Wyllughby \ 

" Bergen op Zoom, 23rd September, 1587. 

" To humbly beseech your Excellencie to do me the favour 
to lend me either Bay Royal, or the gray horse that Sir Roger 
Williams had, but for this journey only ; and if it please God 
that we succeed well in it, I will forthwith restore him to you ; 
for, as Sir W. Drury will advertise you, my horses are sick, and 
I am wonderfully disappointed^." 

On the 26th of September, Willoughby addresses Sir F. Wal- 
singham on the same subject, explaining how the affair stood : 
that having received the challenge only through the Trumpet's 
report, on his return from the mission respecting the ransom of 
prisoners, he despatched his Trumpet again, with a memorial 
under his hand, of which he forwards a copy. He concludes 
the matter thus : " We attend here with great devotion his 
answer and resolution, hoping the next will be our joining of 
hands ^" 

He writes also on the same day to the Lords of the Privy 
Council in England, on a subject which, although it breaks in a 
little on the account of his feats of arms, is too inseparably inter- 

' The peers of these days of EKzabeth did not in signing their titles lay 
aside their Christian names, according to the now received custom. 

2 Ex MSS. Cotton. Galba, D. 2, f. 85, British Museum. 

3 Letter of Lord Willoughby, September 26, 1587. State Paper Office, 
Holland, vol. 47- 



woven with Willoughby's personal history, to be passed over, 
His remonstrance arises from the fact of his being informed, that 
Sir John Norris, who had held his command before him, was to 
be paid for some time after the date of his (Willoughby's) com- 
mission. •" I would not," says he, " willingly oppose Sir John 
Norris his profit or reward, but her Majesty's right I must in 
duty prefer above all ; neither can I forget mine own charge in 
this service, which, if I be no better dealt withal, must needs 
ruin me." On the first of these points he remarks, that on 
receiving the command from Norris, the number of foot soldiers 
was only two hundred and twenty, instead of two hundred and 
fifty, and most of them " unarmed, very miserable, and not 
thoroughly satisfied." The horse troop was likewise deficient ; 
whereas her Majesty, having allowed plentifully for horse and 
arms, ought to have been re-answered. For the other matter, 
he declares he was obliged to supply the men with arms, money, 
and meat, at his own cost ^ ; and had since, by the same means, 
re-inforced the band to the entire number. Having, he says, 
last year raised and maintained a fair company at his own charge, 
he can no longer support such expenses, and prays that their 
Lordships, whatever favour they may think proper to show to 
Norreys, will so provide that her Majesty's service be not the 
worse, nor he himself be impaired ^. 



1 It appears, especially from the State Papers of the time, that it was part 
of Elizabeth's policy to keep all her generals and agents in arrear. 

2 Lord Willoughby to the Lords of the Privy Conncil, from Bergen op 
Zoom, 26th of September, 1587. — State Paper Office, Holland. This letter 
was followed, on the 8th of October, by one from Sir J. Norreys, angry at 
the tenor of Willoughby's ; acknowledging, however, that he had been at 
much expense, though he doubted whether it equalled his own ; and decla- 



WILLOUGHBY TO LEICESTER. 137 

During the course of the same month of September, another 
letter was addressed by Willoughby to Lord Leicester, denying, 
in earnest terms, an accusation made against him, as he says, 
'* underhand," of having ransomed some prisoners against what 
he conceives his duty, and of which offence he asserts his inno- 
cence, and begs for an open investigation, that the truth may be 
made known, and no covert slander thrown upon him, (there 
seems to have existed much cabal and intrigue at this period,) 
and expresses himself thus forcibly : 

" I ambitiously assert not high titles, but sound dealings ; de- 
siring rather to be a private lance with indifferent reputation 
than a colonel-general spotted and defamed with wants. 

" As for George Cressiac \ I hoped your Excellencie had 
rather remembered how dear he might have cost me than other- 
wise. Yourself hnoweth he was not ransomed or discharged with- 
out your privitie ; and look, what your Excellencie would have 
had you might, yet I doubt not but your Excellencie can judge 
I was no great gainer by that bargain. 

"For Martin de la Faille^, whom it may be your Excellencie 
meaneth, I humbly beseech you that I may have my count and 
reckoning upon a reasonable defalkment, from the first time that 
I was called into these parts to her Majesty's service by your 
letters, and I shall willingly resign him." 

Though he denies having in any way ransomed the prisoners 
of war in a manner unbefitting his duty to the General, he adds, 

ring that he would yield to none in zeal for the Queen's service. State Paper 
Office, Holland. 

1 The captain whom he unhorsed and took prisoner before Zutphen. 

2 The merchant captured before Bergen op Zoom. 

T 



138 



WILLOUGHBY TO WALSINGHAM. 



I 



that he would rather relieve himself with such rights as are due 
to him, and such advantages as were bestowed on him in the 
war, than to be an importunate suitor to her Majesty or his 
friends \ 

Between his own distresses, (impoverished as he was,) these 
reproaches against him, and the dissatisfied state of his garrison, 
some of whom were almost desperate for pay, his position must, 
to say the least, have been very uncomfortable. 

On the 7th of October, Willoughby forwarded to Sir F. Wal- 
singham a copy of the answer sent to him by the Marquis del 
Guasto, and explains what he had done, in company with Sir 
Richard Bingham, Sir William Drury, Mr. Chidley, and Mr. 
Vavasour ; how they had with some eighty lances, or nearly so 
many, sallied four English miles, without sending or meaning to 
send any message, "but only to have joined with them, and to 
have entertained fight, till our foot might have come unto us, 
which was led by the sergeant-major, being about three hun- 
dred." He also forwarded the Trumpet's protestation, and in- 



1 Letter in the British Museum, MSS., Cotton. Galba DIl. f. 141. 

The affair of the ransom of Martin de la Faille appears to have been still 
unadjusted in 1592, when Lord Burghley, by letter, desires Mr. Bodley to 
concur effectually with the Queen's own earnest letter to the States on the 
subject, in which she had urged them to give Lord Willoughby the satisfac- 
tion he required, he " having, as they know, well deserved by his late good 
services in this country both of them and their countries all good usage, 
although their slack dealing in other matters may give suspicion of their 
forwardness herein, which, if it so fall out, would be very displeasing to her 
Majesty. From the court at Richmond, the 16th day of December, 1590. 

" Your very loving friend, 

" W. Burghley." 

—British Museum, Cotton. MSS. Galba DVII. fol. 292. 



forms his correspondent that his Excellencie was gone into North 
Holland, the States as yet far off and untoward ; " and our wars," 
he says, "grow, with the season of the year, cold." 

" This day the Duke of Parma mustereth his camp. It is 
high time for some thorough resolution, because delay may give 
advantage'." 

We are now approaching an important epoch in Willoughby's 
military command, the time when high and chief authority was 
bestowed upon him by his sovereign ; but before we mention 
Leicester's return to England, and Willoughby's appointment in 
his room, we must not pass over the account of some success at 
Bergen op Zoom, " which," he writes, " it hath pleased God to 
give to such as I sent forth, to learn some tongue of the enemy's 
intention, both in defeating of convoys, and surprising the corps 
du gard"^, even in the front of the enemy's camp." These, 
he remarks, he had before mentioned, but that the same blessings 
have been since continued to them ; and exulting in the bravery 
of his troops, and the gallantry of a small knot of twenty, who 
had encountered sixty or eighty soldiers of the enemy, with other 
passengers, near Mechlin, had slain many, and taken other pri- 
soners, declares that the country thereabouts was so astonished 
at their valour and resolution, that they called them " rather 
devils than men." 

1 Letter of Lord Willoughby in the State Paper Office, 7th of October, 
1587, Holland. For the Marquis del Guasto's letter, see Appendix, art. 
KK. 

2 " The corps du gard is a squadron of some five and twentie or thirty 
persons, drawne fourth (whether it be in campe or in garrison) and placed 
where the enemy is aptest to make his approaches." — See a volume entitled 
" Five Decades of Epistles of Warre, by Francis Markham," in the library 
of Dr. Bliss, at Oxford, and published in 1622. (p. 45.) 

T 2 



140 



WILLOUGHBY APPOINTED GENERAL. 



On another occasion, Lord Willoughby adds, he lost a ser- 
geant of his foot company, slain in an engagement with a whole 
cornet of Spanish horse ; a small number of the English awaited 
their encounter, slew two of them at the first charge, and re- 
treated without much loss. 

Amongst the captives taken, he mentions a remarkable one, a 
certain Edward Smart, who at once revealed his station to the 
corporal of the company. It appears he was a kind of spy, 
employed, as he alleged, by Doctor Wilson \ to gather informa- 
tion ; that he had been forced to remain in those parts, and to 
pass for a " catholic " (that is, a Romanist) against his con- 
science ; and had lately had neither means nor messengers to 
forward intelligence, as he had been wont to do. He made 
the warmest protestations of zeal in her Majesty's service, if 
such could be of any value from a person who comes before us 
in so doubtful a character ^. 

Lord Willoughby has been hitherto presented to us — first, in 
the light of a diplomatist ; and secondly, in that of a brave and 
distinguished military officer. We are now to view him in the 
more responsible situation of General of the Queen's forces in 
the Low Countries, to which command he succeeded when 
Leicester, at the close of the year 1587, was recalled to Eng- 
land. The government of the Provinces, which he resigned to 
the Estates, was shortly after by them conferred on Grave Mau- 
rice of Nassau ^ ; and the command of her auxiliary forces was 



^ Secretary of State. (The author of the Memoirs of the young Duke of 
Suffolk.) 

2 Lord Willoughby to Sir Francis Walsingham, October 24, 1587- State 
Paper Office, Holland, vol. 46. 

3 Camden's Elizabeth, p. 399. 



HIS COMMISSION. 141 



bestowed, by Elizabeth, on Peregrine Bertie, Lord Willoughby, 
with instructions to pacify the dissensions which had arisen, and 
reduce the seditious to order ; so that he set forth in the double 
capacity of a general, to make head against the enemy, and con- 
trol the factious and unruly ; and of a peace-maker \ to heal the 
breaches which had been so unhappily created, and restore the 
glory of the English name. 




A more unenviable position can scarcely be imagined, than the 
one in which Lord Willoughby now found himself. Leicester, the 
late commander, and the States had been at variance ; disgusts 
and dissensions, suspicion and discontent, reigned on all sides ; 
the English name was in bad odour, and the authority conferred 
upon him, and which he did not willingly accept, was weak- 
ened and abridged so soon as it was forced upon him. The 
commission which assigned the office of General to Lord Wil- 
loughby, is dated November 10, 1587 ^ ; it bestows the titles, 
which Lord Leicester had previously held, of " Locum tenens, 
Dux generalis totius exercitus et copiarum." There is a clause 

^ " Le Sieur de Willoughby qui etoit un bon et paisible Seigneur pacifia 
le different qui etoit a Naarden, et fit tout devoir et diligence pour apaiser 
le different, tellement que les Etats se montrerent volontaires," &c. — Histoire 
des Pays Bas, par Meteren. 

2 Rymer's Foedera. 



that " Omnia ilia," &c. should be transacted " cum consilio et 
assensu Will^ Pelham ;" an addition in no way displeasing to 
Willoughby, especially as he appears to have entertained a hum- 
ble opinion of himself; and though on all occasions he was for- 
ward to devote his life and sword to his sovereign, yet he 
esteemed others as fitter to command, whilst he, in her service, 
was prepared to obey. The Queen, however, thought other- 
wise ; and, notwithstanding his remonstrances on the subject, 
resolved to entrust him with the command of her army ; and as 
he proved himself worthy of her opinion, rather than his own, 
and successfully effected the objects for which she selected him, 
(as Camden expresses it, "feliciter praestitit,") she had no cause 
to repent her decision. A few extracts from his own letters at 
the time will best portray his feelings on the subject. 

Writing on the 14th of November, 1587, to Sir Francis Wal- 
singham, from Middleburgh, he says, " I need not count with 
you the broken state of this country, the division of states, the 
strength of the enemy, nor reckon up my own wants ; you can 
best judge how a war standing on these terms may be carried by 
such a one as I." He earnestly entreats him to preserve him, if 
possible, from this appointment ; but if it must be, he adds, that 
" contented with his sort, he will endeavour his best \" 

In the same month he thus writes from Vlissing^ : " My Lord, 
her Majestie's choice of me to this place, accompanied with 
your honourable well wishes, are honours heaped on me more 
than I merit : the best means to acknowledge it, is ever to dis- 
claim from it, and in the humblest sort, with humble earnestness 



^ Letter in the State Paper Office, Holland. Middleburgh, November 14, 
1587. 

2 Perhaps Flushing. 



to require you to be a mean to her Majesty to make some better 
choice. The assistant nominated to me, is a man whom I re- 
verence so much, but especially for his virtues, as more fitter for 
the place than I, and her Majesty not to be charged with two 
choice officers where one may serve ; besides he hath already 
borne chief place in Ireland, and had the second place of the 
field here under her Majesty's State-general ; and now to be 
second to me were a thing not agreeable to his due estimation. 
For myself in that condition I am able to do her Majesty ser- 
vice, I would expose my life and fortune to all things ; but to 
hazard a matter of so great importance upon so slender a sup- 
port, I most humbly beseech you may be digested. What is my 
slender experience ? What an honourable person succeed I ? 
What an encumbered popular state is left? What withered 
sinews, which passeth my cunning how to restore ? What an 
enemy in hand, greater than heretofore ; and wherewithal shall I 
sustain this burthen ? For the wars I am fitter to obey than 
to command; for the state I am a man prejudicated in her 
opinion, and not the better liked of them, that I have earnestly 

followed the General 

'^ I most humbly beseech your Lordship, that some such 
honourable person, that is in good opinion with the States, may 
be thought on. Next to Sir John Norris \ I know not a man 
may be better accepted of than Sir Richard Bingham, for his 
quality ; and if you would go higher, there is my Lord Gray and 
my Lord North. For my own part, if I might answer the place 
with my own ability, I would hold myself wonderfully happy to 

* A proof that the private disputes between these two eminent men did 
not interfere with Willoughby's good opinion of him, nor prevent his ex- 
pressing it generously. 



144 



INSTRUCTIONS FROM THE QUEEN. 



be SO honoured; now I desire to be so exempted, for it is not 
lawful, as your Lo. very well saith, 'Bis peccare in bello ;' and 
as the world and variable events of war are things that seldom 
continue in a certain state with those that are the tenderlings of 
fortune, so much more is it to be like with me who have so small 
grounds to be fortunate, the wars withal," &c. &:c/ 

The eloquent humility of this appeal produced, however, no 
effect : Lord Willoughby's appointment was not cancelled, and 
he assumed the command. The following are the articles of 
instructions given to him on the occasion, and will best explain 
the powers conferred on him. 

" Whereas we have made choice of you to supply the place of 
our Lieutenant of all our forces serving in those countries, as 
well horsemen and footmen ; we have thought meet to accom- 
pany the commission which we now send you for the executing 
of that charge, with some instructions for your better direction 
and carriage of yourself, in the said charge committed to you. 

'* And first, considering in how dishonourable sort the States 
of these countries have used our cousin of Leicester, on whom, 
besides the authority conferred on him by virtue of the contract 
passed between those countries and us, they had of their own 
voluntary choice and accord yielded unto him the absolute 
government of those countries, as well in causes civil as martial ; 
we have thought good, notwithstanding that by virtue of the said 
contract the Lieutenant-General of our forces is authorised to 
deal as a principal person in matters of government there, that 
you shall not intermeddle in any sort with their government, 
though you shall be thereunto required by them, without our 



1 Ex Cotton. MSS., Galba DII. f. 210. 



COUNSELLORS APPOINTED. 145 

direction ; but only attend unto the charge which we have com- 
mitted unto you, of governing, ruling, and directing our forces, 
there to be employed in the defence of those countries, under 
such a person as they shall choose to be general of their forces. 

" And yet whensoever you shall be called to the field, with 
the forces under your charge, or any part of them, or that you 
shall be required to give them aid, by such as they shall appoint 
to have the direction of their army, you shall require them to be 
made privy to the enterprises or services intended, to the end 
that you may foresee as well that they employ not our subjects 
in desperate attempts, but that the service which they shall send 
them unto may carry likelihood of success ; as also that they 
shall adventure, in all such enterprises, their own people as far 
forth as they mean to hazard ours. And except they shall make 
clear to you that our forces shall not be otherwise employed, 
you shall make to them reasonable excuse to spare the hazard of 
yourself or our people. 

" And whereas it hath been always accustomed among princes, 
to appoint some persons of judgment and experience as coun- 
sellors of war, to assist such as they choose to be their general, 
we have likewise thought it convenient, for your better aid and 
assistance in the charge now committed unto you, to nominate 
unto you, for that purpose, our trusty and well-beloved Sir Wil- 
liam Russell and Sir William Read, Knights, and Nicholas Er- 
rington and Thomas Wilford, Esquires, whom our pleasure is, 
that as well at such times as you shall be required by the said 
States to lead our subjects to the field, you call unto you the 
said councillors of war, or so many of them as conveniently you 
can procure, to assemble with you to such place where you shall 
remain, and to make them privy to the services intended, and to 

u 



use their advice and counsel in the execution of the same, as also 
at all other times as the necessity of our service shall require. 

" And whereas there have been (as we have been informed) 
sundry great abuses committed by the captains towards the sol- 
diers serving in their bands, to the great weakening of our forces, 
as namely, by granting great numbers of passports to their said 
soldiers, under colour of sickness, to return home into this realm, 
withholding their wages to their own uses ; for avoiding whereof 
we think it meet, and so is our express pleasure, that order be 
given by you, that no passport shall hereafter be granted by any 
private captain, but only by yourself, under your own hand, or 
by such others as are appointed to be governors of the towns 
where our subjects shall be appointed to remain. 

" And as for all others that may concern your charge, as in 
seeing the bands kept complete, the soldiers duly paid by their 
captains, at such as either imprests or full pays shall be made ; 
and that they shall behave themselves orderly and civilly, as well 
one towards another, as towards the inhabitants of such towns 
where they shall be placed in garrison ; we doubt not but you 
will have that care thereof that appertaineth and may be answer- 
able to the trust we repose in you \" 

These articles are valuable, as proving the position in which 
Willoughby was placed, with an independent command over all 
the English forces, a caution not to meddle with the government 
of the States, though he was not to be ruled by them in matters 



^ Instructions to Lord Willoughby, State Paper Office, Holland, vol. 47. 
These instructions bear no date. It is probable, that from the mention of 
other advisers, they were written after the death of Sir William Pelham, 
which took place on the 24th of November, and who was named as Wil- 
loughby's counsellor in his previous commission. 



concerning his charge, and directions how to regulate existing 
abuses, with a concluding expression of trust in his care and dis- 
cretion. The dominion over the Provinces, which had been con- 
ferred by them on Leicester, had never been pleasing to Eliza- 
beth, nor had it been attended with happy results, and she seemed 
desirous that his successor should in this respect steer a different 
course. 

Lord Willoughby, no doubt, found it as difficult a task as he 
anticipated, to unite and reconcile the discordant parties ; nor 
was he at once even fully invested with the authority which 
the Queen commanded him to hold. By an extract of a letter 
from Leicester to Burghley, it seems that the former thought fit, 
on leaving Holland, to detain his patent^ of command till he 
should have seen her Majesty, alledging as a reason for so doing, 
that Sir William Pelham (who only survived this letter a few 
days) was unable to remain to supply that place which the 
Queen expected. Leicester was then on the point of returning 
to England, and promises to leave all things in as orderly a con- 
dition as possible ; and that Lord Willoughby should have the 
whole charge of all her Majesty's forces absolutely ; " albeit," he 
adds, " but for her Majesty's express commandment, he is the 
most unwilling man in the world to continue here." This letter 
is dated the 17th of November, 1587, when he says he hopes in 
five or six days to despatch all he has to do, and that then the 
Queen shall be at no further charges for him ^. 

1 This was not the original commission, but his patent, which confers 
extensive powers upon him, and is to be foimd in the State Paper Office, 
Holland, vol. 47. 

2 Letter of Lord Leicester, November 17th, 1587. State Paper Office, 

Holland, vol. 47- 

u 2 



On the 4th of December the new general assumed the powers 
his sovereign had bestowed, and consented to accept the " weighty 
charge," which, as he expressed it, " called him from his desired 
sheepfold," but in which he was " ready to use his weak slings." 
On that day he writes home to Lord Burghley, and, after acknow- 
ledging the minister's favourable construction of his former ex- 
cuses, he adds an earnest prayer to God that in all things (which 
may be to His glory and her Majesty's service) he may dis- 
charge his duty towards her, and not deceive the honourable 
opinion conceived of him by this early friend, who only inter- 
preted all his declarations of inability in such a service, to a 
becoming modesty and humble diffidence of his own powers. 

He then enters at once on such points as were necessary to be 
arranged ; begs that in such troublesome times, when men are 
prone to speak and judge hastily, that he (Lord Burghley) will be 
content to suspend his own opinion of him till he shall be fairly 
tried ; and that before he receives his charge, all accounts and 
reckonings may be cleared, which was an important point, espe- 
cially as at his entrance on his duties, the treasurer, auditor, 
muster- master, &:c. were all in England. 

" Notwithstanding," says he, " that I have been hitherto an ill 
husband for myself, (yet not spent any way so much as in her 
Majesty's service,) I hope that care, which made me spend mine 
own to witness my duty and obedience, shall make me care to 
preserve her Majesty's treasure in the best sort I may." 

Lord Willoughby had, indeed, already been at great charges : 
the situation he was now called on to fill, demanded a very great 
expenditure; and although he "could be contented," he says, 
" to serve her Majesty for nothing, if it were not to the utter 
ruin of himself and his house, (God having already blessed him 



HIS DIFFICULTIES. 149 



with many children,) yet, of course, it was not possible for him to 
continue to defray such increased expenses, he being at the same 
time deprived of his government of Bergen op Zoom, and enjoy- 
ing only the pay of a colonel-general. 

" But in this," he writes, " that toucheth mine own estate, I 
will say the less, for that I know your Lordship's knowledge 
seeth into it as far as myself, and (as I perceive by my cousin 
Hall's letters) is ready to help me with loan of your money ; an 
honourable kindness offered, which I desire to deserve with some 
extraordinary service of mine. To use vain professions is unfit 
to such a person, as also for the course I am to run ; but I be- 
seech God to enable me with some set means to clear me of 
ingratitude, even but for the favour proceeding therein from 
you \" 

It is a peculiar feature in Elizabeth's government, that she had 
influence enough over her nobles and great men to induce them 
to expend their own private fortunes in her service, as well as to 
devote to her their lives and swords ; and such expenditure on 
their part seems to have been considered and accepted by her as 
a matter of course. It will be seen by the sequel, that in the 
failure of his own resources, one of Willoughby's chief difficulties 
arose from the want of regularity in the supplies of money, pro- 
visions, horses, and the like ; besides a kind of capricious grant- 
ing, withdrawing, and re-granting of powers from the Queen, 
which must have been very perplexing, but which appears to 
have been supported by him with an unflinching determination 
to serve her on all occasions, and under every disadvantage, to 
the utmost of his abilities. 

' Letter from Lord Willoughby to Lord Burghley, from Bergen op Zoom, 
December 4, 1587. State Paper Office, Holland, vol. 47. 



150 



LEICESTER S DEPARTURE. 



The following is a copy of the oath to the States, taken by 
Lord Willoughby : 

" Serment faict par Monsieur le Baron de Willughby. 

" Je promets et jure d'estre fidel et leal a Messieurs les Etats 
Generaulx des Provinces Unies du Pays Bas, et de me conduire 
et reigler en I'execution de ma charge par I'advis et resolution du 
Conseil d'Estat pour la confederation de la cause commune des- 
dits Provinces Unies en maintiennenieur de la vraye religion 
Christienne, comme elle est a present exercee tant en Angleterre 
qu'en les Pays Bas, et de me conformer par toujours au traicte 
faict entre sa Majeste d' Angleterre et lesdits Estats des Pro- 
vinces Unies a Nonesuch, le dixieme jour d'Aoust, xv^ quatre 
vingts et cinq, et I'act d'approbation et ampliation d'Icellui du 
qiiat de Septembre. Au sauf I'hommage que je doibs a sa 

Majeste. Ainsi m'aide Dieu\" 

Two days after the date of Willoughby's last letter. Lord 
Leicester sailed for England ; and there throwing himself at the 
feet of the Queen, to assuage the displeasure she might feel at 
the representations against him, completely succeeded in disarm- 
ing her resentment, if she really experienced any ^. Just as he 
was on the point of embarking, he informed Willoughby, for the 
first time, that he thought fit, instead of leaving his patents, to 
take them with him to England. With great moderation, Wil- 
loughby gave him all credit for acting for the best, and for the 
purpose of preventing, if possible, the cavils of the discontented 



1 From a MS. in the British Museum, Ex Cotton. MSS. Galba, D. 7, 
f. 316, art. 162. There is from some cause a blank after the first four letters 
of the word quatre. 

2 Camden's Elizabeth, p. 400. 



party. "Nevertheless," he adds in a letter to Burghley, "I 
humbly require, that if I must serve her Majesty here, I may 
have her sufficient authorising ; otherwise I shall rather choose 
to commend myself to the mercy of her Majesty, and your 
honourable censures at home, by my return, than, by my being 
here, to hinder her Majesty's services and undo myself, where it 
is likely some more sufficient than myself would be chosen. I 
confess my Lord General hath laid on me more honourable and 
large authority than I am worthy of; but as my stay in these 
parts is only upon her Majesty's commandment, so I require that 
either my authority may come from thence, or else my leave, to 
leave all and come home \" 

There could scarcely be a more reasonable request than this, 
coupled with all due patience, and a resolution not to act too 
rashly, by an immediate return ; but, at the same time, to have 
sufficient authority to be useful, or to resign all. 

At this period affairs were still in a desperate state in the Low 
Countries, and the newly-appointed general urged the most earnest 
entreaties for treasure to support and relieve the wants of the 
army^. On the 23rd of December he writes from Dort, that 
Berghes and Ostend were destitute of victuals and money, the 
people dying, a strong enemy near them, and the misery of the 
winter season pressing so hardly upon the troops, that it were far 
better to recal them, if no succours could be given, than to let so 
many brave men be run into such extremities as were probable ^. 

1 Lord Willoughby to Lord Burghley, December 1587, fi'om Flushing. 
State Paper Office, Holland, vol. 48. 

2 Letter from Lord Willoughby to Sir F. Walsingham, from Flushing, 
December 13. State Paper Office, Holland. 

^ Letter from Lord Willoughby, from Dort, December the 2.3rd. 



152 



WANT OF SUPPLIES. 



On the 29th, he, being at the Hague, informs Lord Burghley 
of the miserable state of the cavalry : "It would be better," 
he says, "for her Majesty to dismount and turn them into 
foot bands, for they cannot feed themselves, much less their 
horses." 

To add to the vexatious position in which he was placed, the 
States had detained the commission which the late Lord General 
had left with him, (who, be it remembered, had carried away 
his patent,) and now they made objections to its validity. Of 
this last circumstance he was privately informed ; but he adds, 
" if they do, and that I have no further commandment from her 
Majesty, I know not what I should do here. And to be plain 
with your Lordship, I always held (unless for duty to her 
Majesty) no authority from her, to be a flat revocation ^" 

The month of January finds him yet more urgent. He repre- 
sents to the Lord Treasurer, that if provisions are not soon sent, 
the frontier towns will be presently rendered up. He details the 
utter destitution of these places ; that they had been informed by 
Sir William Rede, that the distress was so great, as to have con- 
strained the garrisons to drink "at salt and puddle waters ;" that 
soon the hard weather would stop up the passages. He adds, 
that the States have at last acknowledged him as Lord General, 
and accepted him, conditionally, for a term ; but that her Ma- 
jesty must send him more authority, (for his will be out,) or 
some other person with more. " I should hold it," says he, " as 
a favour, if some other, whose credit might maintain such powers 
jive or six weeks without money or means, had my place." He 
prays most earnestly for succours, for the sake of her Majesty's 



Letter from Lord Willoughby to Lord Burghley, December 29, 1587. 



WILLOUGHBY TO THE QUEEN. 153 

honour, the reputation of his nation, and the preserving of so 
many men's hves '. 

As endurance is one of the most necessary qualifications of a 
soldier, and perhaps one of the most real attributes of courage, 
one cannot withhold the tribute of admiration from the man who 
could fight his way through the obstacles arising from cabal or 
jealousy, and the pressing exigencies of positive distress, and 
could still bear and forbear, and resolve to serve, through doubt 
and difficulty, as well as in the exciting field of battle. His 
letter to Elizabeth at this juncture, deserves to be inserted at 
full length. 

" Lord Willoughby to the Queen. 

" Hague, 7th January, 1588 ^ 
" Most gracious Sovereign, 
" Your most excellent Majesty may please to understand, that 
after my Lord General's departure, being careful of your Ma- 
jesty's service, though altogether unable, as well for my own 
want, as for divers cross accidents ^, to advance it as in my heart 
I desired, having attended some days, in good hope, at Flushing, 
a more large and ample direction from your Majesty, I was 
forced, upon the miserable necessities of your garrisons both of 
money and victuals, to hasten me to the States to procure some 
supply, if I might, before a greater inconvenience happened. 
I found them willing and careful, but not ready to give ex- 
pedition, so that it standeth as it did. They enquired of my 

^ Letter from Lord Willoughby to the Lord Treasurer, January 1587. 
State Paper Office, Holland. 

2 State Paper Office, Holland, vol. 49. 

^ As, for instance, the withholding of his patent. 

X 



154 WILLOUGHBY TO THE QUEEN. 

authority, and took some exceptions to the validity of that which 
I showed them from my Lord, but concluded to show themselves 
dutiful, and ready to receive any whom your Majesty com- 
mended. They would willingly accept me with condition 
your Majesty's pleasure for establishing me by your highness's 
authority and commission should be signified within the space of 
two months ; and for default thereof, my authority should imme- 
diately surcease. Your Majesty knows and can best judge what 
a person is to be required to attone^ the disunions hath been 
amongst themselves, assure their differences, supply the necessity 
of your forces (wanting both money and victual), and defend 
them by war, who are already half-conquered with dissension, 
famine, and distrust. And yet in these your Majesty's excellent 
virtues are manifest, and admirably honourable, that when you 
are but named, discord joins hand, diffidence gives trust, and 
misery is relieved with joy and comfort attending some happy 
hour. The particulars whereof your Majesty's ambassador can 
at large inform, with whom all these have been communicated. 

" I know your Majesty's royal providence is to win occasion, 
and your affairs stand here as you may lose none without much 
hazard of your own forces and safety. Your Majesty may there- 
fore please to determine of some qualified person and means, to 
govern and relieve your army, which else falls into certain peril 
and ruin, so as I think it toucheth my duty much to let your 
Majesty know it. For my own part, I will refuse nothing your 
Majesty shall command me, and hope to discharge your Ma- 
jesty's commandment so as I shall always covet the touch and 
trial of my doings to win me credit with your Majesty ; yet if it 

^ To attone ; that is, to reconcile, to make as one. 



WILLOUGHBY TO BURGHLEY. 155 

shall please you upon these great occasions to advise of a more 
worthier than myself, I shall hold my time very happily spent, if 
I end with your favour, and a more able than myself begin with 
your more honour and better advancement of the service. And 
so, in the humblest manner I can, presenting my dutifulest ser- 
vice unto your most excellent Majesty, T beseech God make 
you no less happy than He hath, and increase it by His Al- 
mightiness to His glory, your own royal contentment, and joy of 
the Christian world. From the Hague, the 7th of January, 
1588. 

"Your most excellent Majesty's most humble 
and loyal subject, 

" Peregrine Wyllughby." 

Willoughby's next communication is with Lord Burghley, from 
the Hague, assuring him that he did not doubt of his willingness 
to relieve their necessities, and trusting that he will pardon im- 
portunities forced upon him by the miseries of his army. He 
says he is " sorry to hear the continuance of her Majesty's pur- 
pose for his abode in the Low Countries, though glad to do her 
all the service in his power." ..." That money," he continues, 
"which with your Lordship's honourable care shall come over, 
shall be so spent and stretched, as, considering our necessities, 
you may judge how more will be husbanded when it is possible 
to receive it." He had also been informed, that he might soon 
look for the arrival of his letters patent from the Queen : " when 
they come," he adds, "I will say, with the bishops, 'Nolens 
volens episcopabo,' and truly meaning, as they should do." He 
gives a description of the uncomfortable state of discontent still 
pervading these unfortunate provinces, and especially of a burgo- 

X 2 



156 



COUNT MAURICE. 



master of Swoll, "who," he says, "had long attended here a 
resolution of peace or war amongst the States-General, himself 
well inclining to the peace, and departed homewards this day, 
and communicated certain discontents he conceived," not against 
the English, however, but " that Count Maurice, green of years, 
seconded with green councillors," as he termed them, " compass- 
ing the cassing (dissolving) of the Council of State, and the 
electing of new for his purpose," did in a manner claim absolute 
authority \ Count Meurs, too, governor of Utrecht, fearing to 
be thrust out of his command, in open council protested, (they 
not satisfying him better,) that were it not for her Majesty, he 
would depart, for their ingratitude, to some other country ; and 
although "they valued not much his loss, yet the enemy would 
fain win him, because of the countries adjoining." Both these 
parties, however, remained unshaken in protestations of devotion 
to Queen Elizabeth, who indeed was the only apparent refuge 
of the Low Countries from the dominion of Spain. These 
affairs, however, were amongst the state secrets of the sixteenth 
century ; for Willoughby adds, that in his " opinion it were bet- 
ter not to take hold of this, or Flushing news at home." ..." If 
once," he writes, " there was a foot of this government to me or 
any other established from her Majesty, towns and provinces 
will not so soon be carried ; and this proceeds because there is 
no certainty of the government." ..." Maurice," he adds, " is 
young, hot-headed, coveting honour; which, if we could but 
look through our fingers at, without much words, but providence 



^ He even thought it possible that Count Maurice might with the forces 
and towns in his hands, make their peace to the disadvantage of her Ma- 
jesty's service, and of the inhabitants of the cities, who, he said, had tasted 
of her Majesty's graciousness, and were loyally devoted to her. 



COUNT HOLLOCK. 157 



enough, baiting his hook a little to his appetite, there is no doubt 
but he might be catched and kept in a fish-pool, while in his 
imagination he may judge it a sea. If it fall not so out, it is 
likely he with his will make us ever fish in troubled waters." A 
troublesome coadjutor, whose youthful vanity required to be ever 
considered and tickled, while his maturer colleague would fain 
have given an undivided attention to weightier and graver mat- 
ters. One of Count Maurice's purposes was to negotiate an 
alliance for himself with a daughter of Denmark, to strengthen 
his interest, and "add to his greatness," in which plot it seems 
he was assisted by Count HoUock, the brave soldier already 
mentioned in this narrative \ 

Willoughby's next communication informs Burghley, that the 
" incumbrances of the state goeth a malo in pejus ; they embrace 
their liberty as apes their young. To that end is Count Hol- 
lock and Maurice set on the stage ; and to entertain the popular 
sort, her Majesty and my late Lord General are not forgotten. 
Your Lordship may gather by this book of division of their 
forces, how strong and great the Counts are in Holland, espe- 
cially Hollock, for the other is but the cypher ; and yet I can 
assure your Lordship, Maurice hath wit and spirit much for his 
time. If it be so, as some suspect, that he should treat with the 
enemy, (her Majesty withholding her hand,) he might Cretizare 
cum Cretensi ; vid. his masters the States ; and make his atone 



1 Letter of Lord Willoughby to Lord Burghley, from the Hague, January 
12, 1587-8. State Paper Office, Holland, vol. 49. This Philip, Count of 
Hollock or Hohenlo, was brother-in-law to the young Count Maurice, having 
married his elder sister ; and being an experienced soldier, had instructed 
him, when young, in the art of war. He was at the head of a party in the 
Netherlands, opposed at one time to Lord Leicester. 



158 



WILLOUGHBY S GRIEVANCES. 



for those towns well with the Spaniards, and then they might 
rejoice to have spun fair for their liberty. He seems to advise, 
that the States should learn their dangerous condition without 
the English, by having Maurice established as their governor; 
"and," he writes, " by that time they have enjoyed him awhile, 
they will of themselves come about again by that time they are 
advised of their perils." In the mean time they re-inforced with 
garrisons Walcheren and the town of Camphire ^, whilst Wil- 
loughby renewed his protestations of being unequal to the office 
he held, (torn, as the States were, by contending factions,) and of 
being crippled also by the miserable want of means. At length 
a supply was sent from England, but unaccountably used and 
misapplied before it reached his hands ^. 

On the 22nd of January he received his commission, with 
letters dated the 23rd of December, '* so abridged in many points 
of the large authority " which the other taken from him con- 
tained, that though, he says, he was neither deserving of so 
great a favour, nor willing to undertake the charge, yet he had 
" hoped that his toleration in extremities and hazards," had not 
deserved that her Majesty's favour should now be "straitened." 
He had made up his mind to hold this post against his own in- 
clinations, and now trusted to have her goodness enlarged, not in 
the way of " advancement, but only of good opinion." He was 
ready, if she would permit him, to leave " all authority and 
charge, and serve her Majesty as a private man ; and with my 
purse," he adds, " which though it be extreme lean, yet fits it 



^ Willoughby to Lord Burghley, Hague, January 16, 1587-8. State Paper 
Office, Holland, vol. 49. 

2 Letter of Lord Willoughby to the Lords of the Privy Council, 22nd of 
January, 1587-8. State Paper Office, Holland. 



HIS COMPLAINTS. 159 



better that I show my devotion in a beggarly state, than but in a 
formal and tytelous show." 

"Your Lordship," he writes to Lord Burghley, "hath, I 
doubt not, perused both my commission and instructions ; by the 
first I have authority to fight, hut I have no men, for they be all 
in garrisons, which I am expressly forbidden to meddle with, as 
bread of proposition \ . . . I may punish, but I can hardly ad- 
vance, so that the sum thereof is, I may war when I have men ; 
and as for her Majesty's treasure, I doubt not her Majesty shall 
be thoroughly answered the disbursement thereof, by them that 
are authorised thereunto ; and I, having no commandment there- 
in, shall (I hope) most happily be quit of so great a care and 
accompt." The disposal of the money, it seems, had been 
undertaken by " the Treasurer's man," so that Willoughby had 
now no charge of it. It had not been mentioned in his commis- 
sion, nor had he even been made privy to the manner or objects 
on which it was expended. 

He seems also to object to the restrictions of his authority, (in 
that he was not permitted to discharge those offices which by 
contract the States were to allow to the Queen's general,) and 
chiefly to the clause directing him to be under the States' general 
of the field. He stands up for the dignity of the Queen's lieu- 
tenant, which in his opinion was lowered by such an arrange- 
ment ; adding, that if his " unworthiness cause it, there is better 
choice ; if their worthiness, let such a one be appointed by her 
Majesty :" and concludes thus : "I have troubled your Lordship 
with this discourse, not that I desire a larger-shaped coat, for I 
am well contented to be straitened ; but to that end, if it were 

^ Pain de proposition (shew-bread) ; that is, too sacred to be touched. 



possible, I might be turned out of it, and that some one more 
worthy thereof had it." He would willingly, he says, live 
quietly, "his poor roof low and near the ground, not subject to 
be overblown with unlooked-for storms, while the sun seems 
most shining \" 

On the 4th of February, we learn from a letter written from 
the Hague, by a Mr. Gilpin, that Lord Willoughby was attacked 
by one of his fits of illness, and unable to stir from his chamber ; 
yet on the 5th we find him again urging Lord Burghley to con- 
sider the condition of Bergen op Zoom, in great danger of being 
lost as the season advanced, if not succoured from England. At 

m 

home, however, all men's thoughts were engrossed by the affairs 
of the unfortunate Mary, Queen of Scots ; and Willoughby ap- 
pears to have been little heeded, even by the late Lord General, 
Leicester, to whom, amongst others, he applied. 

The following extract from a letter of the Queen's, addressed 
to Lord Willoughby, and dated the 13th of February, will ex- 
plain in part, at least, her reasons for acting as she had, and 
removes also one cause of complaint : 

" And whereas for certain special considerations we did, by 
the late instructions we sent unto you, restrain you from the 
executing of the authority yielded by the States, by virtue of 
their contract, unto the governor of our forces, we are now 
pleased that you shall execute the same so far forth as is con- 
tained in the said contract, so as you accept no further authority 
from them than is contained in the same several articles of the 
contract, without our privity and assent first had thereunto ; the 
restriction whereof was rather to show our offence towards them, 

' Lord Willoughby to Lord Burghley, from the Hague, January the 23rd, 
1587-8. State Paper Office, Holland, vol. 49. 



PROCEEDINGS AT NAARDEN. 161 

as men unworthy to be dealt withal, and not to diminish your 
credit^." 

It was, no doubt, this assurance which Willoughby gratefully 
acknowledges in a letter to Lord Burghley, from the Hague, 
dated February 29th, in which he says, that on the receipt of 
her Majesty's letter (which gracious favour with duty is em- 
braced) he had repaired thither to deal effectually in affairs he 
had in charge, and had despatched Colman (late secretary to Sir 
William Pelham) to Count Hollock, with the Queen's letters, 
being informed that he was in a wavering state of mind^, and 
rather out of conceit with the States ^. 

Willoughby must have needed a very full commission, in order 
to be useful in such a scene of distrust and jealousy as the Low 
Countries presented at this period ; for, as he writes, a party 
had been raised and incited against the English ; and at Naarden, 
particularly, the noted Paul Buys had so worked upon the burgo- 
masters, as more than half to persuade them that in adhering to 
England, and seeking her aid, they were doing an injustice to 
their own countryman. Count Maurice. " Colonel Dorp," writes 
Willoughby, "spake openly that it was a shame the country 
should refuse their own natural born Count for us strangers, 
swearing ' Je chanteray son chanson du quell je mange le pain.' 
Both he and Paul Buys had given out, that ere long they, vid. 
Maurice, &c. will publicly and openly protest war against us. It 
was said likewise openly to Maurice at his board, ' Monsieur le 
Prince, vostre pere s'il eusse eu le troisiesme part offerte que vous 
aves dul'ennemy eusse accepte et n'est ce point une belle occasion 

^ Extract from the Queen's letter, State Paper Office, Holland, vol. 60. 

2 " He standeth staggering." 

3 Letter of Lord Willoughby, State Paper Office, Holland, vol. 50. 

Y 



que vous ne scaures articuler ou desirer aultant comme vous en 
aures d'eulx ?' Soissons, the fat captain of Naarden, fed for 
their tooth, confessed to me they had practised with the enemy." 
Willoughby found the greatest difficulty in attempting to reason 
with the burgomaster ; and also to "assure," he adds, "the un- 
fortunate captains whose heads, I fear, must pay for all ;" urging 
them to remember, that it " were better to be a horsekeeper to 
her Majesty, than a captain of Barnevelts or Paul Buys." And 
further telling them, it was sure that the States' General, nor the 
two Counts (Hollock and Maurice), who had feasted us, and 
drank to the health of his Excellency, meant but all well to our 
nation. " Well," said the old burgomaster, " but that I hear 
you say so, I would scarcely believe it ; for mine ears have often 
borne witness to the contrary." 

Count Maurice was expected at the moment, and Willoughby 
obtained a promise from the citizens, that they would receive him 
in like form as they had her Majesty's general, into their town ; 
namely, attended only by a few private followers '. He adds, 
that "it will be a great loss to the Queen to lose so many affec- 
tions in such sort, but a greater if they possess all the towns, and 
joining with the enemy, war both against her, which with a small 
charge, and but a gracious countenancing their cause only, ac- 
cording to the contract, she may avoid." The refusal at Home 
to receive two companies of soldiers brought from Amsterdam, 
caused also great perplexity. " The town," he says, " will not 

^ In this letter of Willoughby's to Burghley, dated February, 1588, he 
also says, that " the Count had cashiered Souoy's nephew, because he would 
not swear to him, but held his first oaths ;" and that he sent to fetch the 
colours away, but the soldiers met them in the street, and took them again, 
so that there was much stir in the town. 



HIS PROCLAMATION. 163 



victual these two companies, those of Utrecht dare not ; we are 
forbidden." 

Willoughby's despatches to Sir Francis Walsingham contain a 
verbatim report of many of these events, with a retrospect of 
others that had occurred during the last ten days. He begins by 
informing him, that on the last 9th of February, a proclamation 
had been actually made from the town-house of Home, contain- 
ing these three articles : viz. " That Count Maurice, as Governor- 
General of Holland, Zealand, and West Friesland, did release 
and discharge the town of Home, with all the magistrates, of 
their oath made unto my Lord of Leicester. Secondly, they dis- 
charged Captain Droninge with his whole company." (This 
Captain Droninge was that nephew of Sonoy who had refused to 
take the oaths to Maurice \) " Thirdly, that they should swear 
and acknowledge Count Maurice to be their absolute governor ;" 
the which the town of Home hath done, with the captain, his 
lieutenant, two sergeants, and a corporal, with eleven or twelve 
soldiers ; the rest will not as yet. 

" Upon the 14th day there was proclaimed from the town- 
house, about eleven of the clock, a general pardon and re- 
mission of all such offences as had been committed against 
Count Maurice and the States, since Easter last, anno 1587 ; 
and the magistrates, with the rest, or most part, were sworn. 
Also, upon the 15 th day, the scouts of all the villages about 
Home and Medenblicke were at Home, where, by report, they 
were sworn. The Count granted authority, under his hand and 
seal, unto two or three of the chiefest boors, to resist Sonoy 

^ " He hath," says Willoughby, *' his commission granted from Count 
Maurice to be of his regiment," which was now recalled. 

Y 2 



164 ADVERTISEMENTS TO WALSINGHAM. 

with his confederates, so that he is hke to have no succour from 
the villages ^ 

" There lieth at a village called Spanbroke, thirty-seven horse- 
men ; it is about an hour's going from Home. Captain Roder- 
brock, of Amsterdam, lieth at Oesterhone, with one hundred 
foot ; Captain Necke lieth upon another passage with one hun- 
dred foot^. It was reported that Count Maurice went to be- 
siege Medenblicke ; but his intent was to lie at a Dorp called 
Warmoese. There remained at Home, Paul Buse, Barnefeldt, 
Doctor Francis, Doublet (which is treasurer unto the States), 
Moerkirk (burgomaster of Delphe), two of Middleburgh magis- 
trates, the burgomaster of Alkmaer, two of Enchuysen, and one of 
Amsterdam. 

" Colonel Sonoy went about the walls of Medenblicke upon 
the 13th of this month, with one Captain Krystall, and divers 
others, to give orders lest the burghers should mutiny. He hath 
in the town six hundred soldiers ; and for their relief he hath 
appointed seventeen hundred gilders every week, which is a 
great impoverishing to the commonalty ; for his own person he 
requireth nothing. It was given out he would sack the country 
villages, to make payment unto his soldiers, which caused the 
boors to fall from him unto Count Maurice. 

" The 14th of this month, travelling to Amsterdam upon some 
private occasions, I passed by Naarden, wliere I found (dis- 
coursing at supper with the burgomasters) that by the practices 
of Paul Buse, they were wonderfully alienated from us, conceiv- 

^ This Colonel Sonoy appears to have been a staunch ally of the 
English. 

2 No doubt the two companies from Amsterdam mentioned in Willoughby's 
last letter. 



ing very hardly of her Majesty's most honourable proceedings, 
and my Lord of Leicester's 

" The towns that hold for us require nothing but to remain 
according to their franchises. The soldiers having once ap- 
proved the honour of my Lord of Leicester, do depend upon 
him. 

" On the other side, the Count seeks nothing but either mani- 
fest usurpation, or else a treacherous conclusion with the enemy. 

" It were very necessary some good order were taken for Cap- 
tain Jaques Rauncey ; for although the town like him well, they 
will give him no maintenance, since Buse and Barneveldt had 
cashiered him. They of Utrecht dare not show themselves : I 
am, by my instructions, forbidden ; and unable, if I were not. In 
like manner the secretary of the town, depending only upon my 
Lord of Leicester's resolution, would not be forgotten ; and if 
there be no means to help them, it were good some honourable 
reward were given, and they called out. 

" The I7th of this month, I had intelligence given me by one 
that came from Tergow, father to a soldier under my company, 
that all such as favoured her Majesty's honourable proceedings, 
and my Lord of Leicester's, were forbidden the town. He saw 
with his own eyes a gentleman of Antwerp turned out of the 
town, depending upon my Lord of Leicester. 

" Upon the 18th of this month, being the Dutchman's Bac- 
chanalia, about ten of the clock in the night, the corps-de-garde 
being placed, and the sentinels set forth. Captain Champerney, 
his company keeping their corps-de-garde upon the gate-house, 
the burghers of the town held their guard beneath. About eleven 
of the clock in the night, one of them departed from his guard 
upon some occasion ; the rest, well wittled with beer, threw 



stones the one at the other ; one amongst them threw a stone at 
the sentinel, who called his corporal, complaining of the burghers. 
The corporal desired them to be quiet, and not to trouble the 
sentinel, the better to discharge his duty. The burghers, im- 
patient to be spoken unto, gave him hard words. He told them 
he would complain unto the burgomaster and sergeant-major. 
They answered, they accompted not of them, giving most cruel 
words, saying they were confederated with us, but they hoped to 
see a change ; and upon some other unkind speeches, they de- 
parted into their corps-de-garde. Within one hour after, they 
came forth again, and threw stones against the sentinel ; he 
called his corporal. The corporal told them, that by their 
disorder the sentinel could not hear the round pass, therefore 
desired them, with good words, to content themselves. The 
burghers presently grew into bad terms, and went into their 
guard and armed themselves, and came upon the wall towards 
the corps-de-garde. The sentinel called his corporal, who de- 
manded of them what they were, and to what end they came. 
The corporal of the Dutchmen (who led the whole squadron) 
answered, they came to visit his corps-de-garde. He replied, if 
he would come, (giving the word,) he should ; but the rest should 
not. After divers words, the corporal told them, that if it were 
not in the night, they would not digest this abuse. They an- 
swered them, that they could master them at that present, know- 
ing assuredly they had no powder, and therefore would enter. 
The soldiers within the guard bent their pikes against them ; so 
after some words they departed. The captain coming the round, 
and hearing this complaint, imprisoned two or three of the chief- 
est as mutineers, and such as (upon small occasion) would seduce 
others unto discontents. 



EXIGENCIES OF THE GOVERNOR. 



167 



" It was urged in their council to me, that I should take care 
to provide our men with powder and all other necessaries, for the 
defence of the magistracy and ourselves against the malcontented 
burghers, as you may gather by their speeches before rehearsed. 
But because I have no authority to command her Majesty's trea- 
sure, and the Treasurer having specially written unto his man, 
that upon no warrant, or without respect of cause or person, he 
should make no payment, the which being published abroad, I 
am disabled of all credit to prevent any such danger or misfor- 
tune (as this was) being called thereunto, I can hardly fulfil their 
request, or assure ourselves. 

" It were therefore very meet the Treasurer, or some other 
better trusted than myself, was presently sent over, whose credit 
might be sufficient to supply all such wants ; for otherwise great 
inconveniences will happen. 

" Likewise I received letters this day, that fifty of Count 
Maurice's men were carried into Home, being hurt in the 
trenches before Medenblicke, Monsieur Famas commanding on 
the one side, and Marshal Villierson on the other \" 

With these advertisements Willoughby also forwarded a letter 
to Sir Francis Walsingham, so clearly setting forth the discon- 
tents which rent asunder those who ought to have been united 
against a common enemy ; the complaints of the well-affected ; 
the violence of another party ; the overweening ambition of one 
young man ; and the disadvantages under which the General's 
energies and efforts were crippled, that it will scarcely bear 



^ Advertisements from Lord Willoughby to Sir F. Walsingham, February 
19, 1588. State Paper Office, Holland, vol. 50. 



168 



CHARACTER OF MAURICE. 



abridgment or alteration ; and its intrinsic merit must plead the 
best excuse for its length. It is worded thus : 

" Sir, I send you by the bearer the present estate of these 
parts of North Holland and Utrecht, where I now remain, by 
which you may conjecture what is likely to be the event. What 
I think, I am bold to communicate with you ; not that I presume 
to counsel, but to complain of the miserable condition wherein 
this country stands, and of the hard terms wherein myself is 
left. For the first evils they are specially derived from the 
childish ambition of the young Count, from the covetous and 
furious counsel of the proud Hollanders, now the chief of the 
Estates General, and (if with pardon it may be said) from our 
slackness and coldness ; to entertain those friends that willingly 
would give their lives to preserve our safeties, if we would do no 
more than (as reason would lead us) acknowledge and approve 
their faithful endeavours ; the provident and wisest sort weighing 
what a slender ground the appetite of a young man is, unfur- 
nished of sinews of war to manage so good a cause. For a good 
space after my Lord General's departure (they) gave him afar 
off, the looking on, to see him play his single part on the stage ; 
but as the skittish horse is assured of that he feared, by little and 
little perceiving the harmlessness thereof; so they, finding no 
safety of neutrality (in so great practices), and no overturning, 
nor barricado to stop his rash wielded chariot, followed without 
fear ; and when some of the first had passed the bog, the rest, as 
the fashion is, never started after. The variable democracy, 
embracing novelty, began to applause their prosperity ; the base 
and lewdest sort of men, to whom there is nothing more agree- 
able than change of estates as their better monture to degrees 
than their merits, took present hold thereof. Hereby Paul Buse, 



WILLOUGHBY TO WALSINGHAM. 



169 



Barneveldt, and divers others, who were before mantelled with a 
colourable affection, though seasoned with a poisoned intention, 
caught the occasion, and made themselves the Belzebubs of all 
these mischiefs ; and, for want of better angels, spared not to let 
fly our golden-winged ones, in names of gilders, to prepare their 
hearts and hands, that hold money more dear than honesty ; of 
which sort these country troubles and the Spanish practices hav- 
ing sucked up many, they found enough to serve their purposes ; 
and as the breach is safely saultable where no defence is made, 
so they finding no head, but those scattered arms that were dis- 
avowed, drew the sword with Peter, and gave pardon with the 
pope, as you shall plainly perceive by his proceedings at Home. 
Thus their force, fair words, or corruption, prevailing every 
where, it grew to this conclusion, that the w^orst w^ere encouraged 
with their good success, and the best sort assured of no fortune 
or favour. 

" For after my Lord of Leicester his departure, who had left 
them assurances of their course, or at least by his honourable 
words and proceedings \ good hope thereof, when now some 
months had passed, and they all that while that they saw their 
contraries so increasing, and attending with great constancy and 
hazard of their lives, some answer and resolution from his Lord- 
ship, which seeing themselves frustrated of, either by the troubles 
or great affairs that occupied them otherwise in England, or else 
by the contrariety of the weather, or whether the thwart course 
run here by the States' General, made a longer resolution upon 
their ambassador's answer, or what might be the cause, I leave 



^ Willoughby's opinion, and these contemporary statements regarding 
Lord Leicester, are somewhat at variance with more modern notions of his 
character and abilities. 

z 



to them that best know it ; but sure I am they suffered wonder- 
fully, and our slackness wanted not to be blamed on all hands, 
as well parties or lookers-on ; at the last they repaired unto me, 
desiring to know what direction I had, or else could give them, 
in so declining and desperate a cause. Well nigh a month I 
nourished them with compliments and good words, assuring them 
I had none, but that there could not be better advice given them 
under the Earl's own hand, which I doubted not his diligence 
and care of them was such as could be confirmed with the first 
wind ; colouring as well as I could, and concealing the courthold 
authority and credit together with the manifest prohibitions I had, 
by my instructions, not to intermeddle with their causes ; nay, 
rather the express command I had, to be under the general of 
this country, their general enemy ; what manifest diffidences 
this might have wrought in them, as also some conceit of dis- 
honour to her Majesty, to have her lieutenant ranged under 
theirs ; or lastly, how much the good cause hath been hindered 
or weakened thereby, as being matters I willingly enter not into, 
I leave to your further consideration and judgment, as also having 
a little particularised the same in a note sent (both now and 
before) unto you. 

"But when they saw no help, neither from home, nor means 
from me, they called me into a council ; and there, after many 
expostulations of the state wherein they were left by the Earl of 
Leicester, accompanied with great fears and doubts lest her 
Majesty would also abandon them, or at least that she respected 
them no more, in words importing much bitterness and grief of 
mind, they concluded. They required a thorough and speedy 
resolution ; for their own small means, their great enemies, and 
their slow friends, drew them to that extremity, that either they 



must join with them of Holland, and make their peace with 
those, or else compound with the enemy ; which they instantly 
required me to impart unto you, that you might be the means to 
acquaint her Majesty, as she on whom they rely specially for a 
sound help or reliever of their miseries. 

" I replied, her Majesty's affection and care had been so 
thoroughly signified from the hour she undertook their assist- 
ance until this time, as a greater manifestation could not be 
made, having sent more men and money this summer than was 
conditioned, as also the second time so special a man as my 
Lord of Leicester ; and if any slackness grew, there was occasion 
enough ministered from the States General, whose untoward pro- 
ceedings and dilatory resolutions when her Majesty's ambassador 
was here, caused a great deal of opportunity to be lost, and that 
since no weather had served, that (my Lord of Leicester in my 
simple conceit) could not well resolve before their message was 
heard and debated on ; and that since the north-east winds and 
frosts had stopped all messengers, that they might be well as- 
sured that neither her Majesty nor my Lord of Leicester would 
conclude so honourable an action, wherein so much had been 
hazarded and engaged, so rawly or tragically for their servants 
and followers, but that their constancies would be considered 
accordingly, that their endurings hitherto, for want of a little 
patience, in the end might not make void so good a purpose of 
her Majesty's for them ; that if they did join with Holland, they 
might remember that it would neither ease nor help them, but 
draw them into a more dishonourable loss of their liberties ; for 
those that before Antwerp was lost, were fain to seek so humbly 
help, not sufficient with a weening pride to defend themselves, 

being in worst estate many ways than at that time, especially by 

z 2 



giving offence to a Queen of England, are now less able to 
patronise others ; and that it could grow to no other end, but 
having wound them in, would make their own peace with the 
enemy better with their hard conditions. 

" With this they seemed somewhat satisfied ; but still they 
urged a resolution, which, as I am charged withal, so according 
to their trust, I commend it unto you ; and truly, Sir, herein you 
shall do a most godly and honourable service to her Majesty and 
your country, to recommend those faithful men's cause, whose 
loss will highly touch us. And so I commend you to God. 

" Yours assured to command, 

" P. WiLLUGHBY \" 

Willoughby's next report is rather more satisfactory. The 
Queen's gracious regard for those who remained well affected 
towards England, had done much in fixing the minds of some 
who were wavering in disposition. He had, according to his 
directions, proposed certain matters to the States, who, partly 
from being occupied in appeasing their discontented garrisons, 
delayed for a long time their reply ^. He had forwarded the 
Queen's letters to Count Maurice, at that moment in Zealand, 
where they were for the most part attached to England ; his 
chief abode was at Williamstadt, being unwilling to trust the Isle 



1 Lord Willoughby to Sir F. Walsingham, Utrecht, February 19, 1587-8. 
State Paper Office, Holland, vol. 50. 

2 According to a paper in the State Paper Office, containing the " sub- 
stance of the States' answer to Lord Willoughby," he had proposed four 
subjects to their consideration ; the first concerning the Colonel Sonoy ; the 
second concerning some exiles from Leyden ; the third touching the agree- 
ment between Holland and Utrecht ; and the fourth as to the transforming 
of some of her Majesty's cavalry into infantry. See Appendix, art. LL. 



RECEIPT OF SUPPLIES. 



173 



of Walcheren. Count Hollock had received her Majesty's letters 
sent through Colman, and had promised to fulfil their contents to 
the best of his abilities ; but money was still in requisition to 
carry on the campaign, and Bergen op Zoom was nearly brought 
to mutiny from distress amongst the soldiery \ 

Fifteen days after the date of this letter, Willoughby acknow- 
ledges the receipt of a very seasonable supply of money, through 
the Vice-Treasurer, which he engages to stretch to the utmost, 
for the relief of the troops, hoping that Lord Burghley, whom he 
was then addressing, would not fail to remember and relieve 
their future wants, and procure means for supply, "before the 
present shall be clean gone." He also informs him, that he, 
" her Majesty's Lieutenant," had been forbidden by the Lords of 
the Council at home, to alter or discharge the company of Cap- 
tain Shirley, which he had some time previously reported as 
overthrown in fight, through the negligence of officers^. 

The supply consisted of the sum of £10,000 sterling, brought 
to Dort, by the Vice-Treasurer, on the 14th of March, 1587, 
which, at the end of a week from the 16th of March, would leave 
only £884 195. in hand. 

The States gave in their answer to Willoughby's propositions 
on the 23rd of March, as to the first matter, which concerned 
Colonel Sonoy, on the subject of his continuing in the govern- 
ment of Medenblicke ; they thus worded their reply : " Sur le 
premier article repondent les dits Etats apres plusieurs allega- 



^ Letter from Willoughby to Burghley, from the Hague, March 5, 1587 8. 
State Paper Ofl&ce, Holland, vol. 51. 

2 The previous mention of this affair is in a letter in the State Paper 
Office, dated 16th of February, 1587; the present letter is dated, Hague, 
March 20th, 1587 8. State Paper Office, Holland, vol. 51. 



tions centre Sonoy, qu'ils etoient contens que quelque ofFre seroit 
con^u par le Conte Maurice et le dit Sr. de Williehhy avec avis 
des Etats." With respect to the others, three in number, their 
answers are rather indirect ; they refer her Majesty on one sub- 
ject to previous communications they had made, and on another 
profess to wait for the opinion of all the Provinces. 

On the 26th of March, the Queen addressed the following 
letter to Lord Willoughby ; which, as it relates to a very prin- 
cipal seat of war in Flanders at the moment, the city of Ostend, 
is best given in her own words ; 

" By the Queen. 

" Right trusty and well-beloved, we greet you well. Whereas 
we are given to understand, that the town of Ostend is of late 
grown to be very weak, by reason that divers of the rampires 
and bulwarks are decayed and fallen down, the sea having 
broken into some parts of the Bas-town ; and have also been 
now credibly advertised that the enemy hath drawn down a 
great part of his forces that way, so as in one day's march he 
may besiege the said town with thirteen thousand men, whereby 
it is to be feared that somewhat will be attempted against the 
said town. And for that we do hereupon consider how dis- 
honourable it would be for us, that the said place should be lost 
during the time we have it in our hands ; our pleasure therefore 
is, that you shall make choice of a thousand footmen out of our 
bands, where you shall find that they may best be spared, and 
send them presently to the said town, for the necessary guard 
and defence of the same, because we are informed that a less 
number will not suffice for the purpose. And, further, we are 
to let you understand, that we have given order from hence, that 



against the time of their arrival there shall be provision both of 
victuals and of money, for usual lendings for them, in readiness. 
In the execution of which service we require you to use extra- 
ordinary care and expedition, because the importance thereof 
doth so urge the same ; and for other matters we refer you to 
such further direction as you shall receive from our Privy 
Council \" 

Ostend was then, according to Willoughby's account, in a very 
poor condition, as well as Berges (Bergen op Zoom). Certain 
intelligence had reached him, that the enemy were now assem- 
bling in considerable force about Antwerp, with the full intention 
of bursting soon on Berges. *' To withstand the brunt of such a 
siege as might be expected," he urged the rulers at home to 
consider its wants and deficiencies, to remember how disgraceful 
it would be, after the affair of Sluys, to capitulate again, and to 
forward as speedily as possible a royal provision for its succour, 
and a force of at least three thousand foot and six hundred horse 
furnished with all necessaries^. 

"If," writes Lord Willoughby, "any expectation be had, that 
the States will relieve it, there is no hope thereof so long as our 
men possess it. My poor opinion is, (which I humbly leave to 
your Lordship's better experience,) that it were more safe for our 

* Letter from Queen Elizabeth to Lord Willoughby, dated March 26, 
1588. State Paper Office, Holland, vol. 51. Original draft corrected by 
Sir F. Walsingham. The later fair copy limits the number of men to six 
hundred. 

2 Letter of Lord Willoughby to the Privy Council, Hague, April 4, 1588. 
State Paper Office, Holland, vol. 52. In this letter he intreats them to 
delay the granting to Sir John Norreys the pay of his companies of horse 
and foot, till he (Lord Willoughby) has fully explained the state in which 
he received them. 



176 



WILLOUGHBY S ILLNESS. 



men and for the place, more honour to our nation, and more 
pleasing here, if the town were left wholly to the guard of the 
States ; and our soldiers being drawn thence, might be ready to 
attempt any needful service, and be in strength to answer all 
occasions." 

On the same day, in a letter to Burghley, he alludes to his 
own painful state of health, being severely affected by his con- 
stitutional ailment ; and so completely subdued by a violent 
attack of ague, that his mind alone (which appears to have been 
always active) was still at the service of his sovereign. Still he 
laboured hard in the cause of Sonoy, the governor already men- 
tioned, about whose continuance at Medenblicke there had been 
a difference of opinion, and though unable himself to accompany 
Count Maurice to that place, he despatched with him Mr. Killi- 
grew ^, Sir William Read, and the sergeant-major ; still over- 
looked their operations, and strove to bring the matter to a safe 
and peaceful conclusion, of which he entertained good hopes ; 
purposing to rejoin them also in a few days, should his strength 
permit it. He continued to urge the necessities of Berges, and 
must have been painfully annoyed at the delay of its re-inforce- 
ments, a matter now every day becoming more pressingly im- 
portant, both to England and the States^. 

Some agreement had however been already concluded ; for 
Willoughby informs Sir F. Walsingham, that he " had earnestly 
followed a course with Count Maurice and the States, as he was 



^ Mr. Killigrew. Sir Henry Killigrew was one of the Council of Estate 
in Holland, appointed by Elizabeth in pursuance of the treaty of concord 
between her and the States. 

2 Extract of a letter from Lord Willoughby to Lord Burghley, Hague, 
April 4, 1588. State Paper Office, Holland, vol. 52. 



SUSPICIONS. 177 



from her Majesty commanded, and that after sundry meetings 
they had accorded \" 

In his next communication, the General again urges the policy 
of delivering Ostend and Berges into the hands of the States. 
The Queen had, it seems, herself suspected that they entertained 
doubts of her good faith, and conceived very injurious suspicions 
as to the possibility of her retaining their towns, in order, if she 
pleased, to yield them up to the Spaniard, and so make her own 
terms, if she grew tired of the war. Nothing, Willoughby urged, 
could so clearly prove her innocence of such designs, as her re- 
storing the possession of them to their own country, especially if 
it were done graciously, and as a matter of favour, and not as if 
she only desired to relieve herself of a charge. He had before 
expressed an opinion that the English troops would be far more 
serviceable, if, instead of being cooped up in the towns, they 
were at liberty to attempt any needful service, and kept in suffi- 
cient strength and readiness ^. He remonstrates strongly against 
the use of threats on the part of the Queen, as serving rather to 
"harden than adouse^ their dispositions," which were just be- 
ginning to be more "pliant*." In conclusion, he evidently 
alludes to some passages in the letters he had lately received, 
and begs, if any exception may be made against his conduct, 
that all his proceedings may undergo a full and complete investi- 
gation. "Goo(J Sir," he writes, "as to my dear friend, suffer 



^ Extract of a letter from Lord Willoughby to Sir Francis Walsingham, 
April 4, 1588. State Paper Office, Holland, vol. 52. 

2 In his letter to the Privy Council, April 4, 1588. 

^ From adoucir, to soften. 

* Letter of Lord Willoughby to Sir F. Walsingham. State Paper Office, 
Holland, vol. 52, dated Hague, April 6, 1588. 

A a 



178 cranmer's letter. 



me to deal plainly. Let my proceedings since I came here be 
examined, and her Majesty's charges during that time measured ; 
let the late division and discontentments here (almost appeased) 
be regarded, and then I rest persuaded none can touch me to 
have failed in care and trouble. If this may not be approved, it 
shall content me if you send whom you please to amend it ; yet 
first revoke me untainted, in that I ever laboured to preserve 
most dearly. To yoke me to serve with any other, save my late 
Lord General, as if I wanted a tutor, truly the quiet home will 
more content me; and will be always most ready to leave the 
room empty unto any other (without offence to their sufficiency), 
who hath more need to follow the wars than myself. For God 
(I praise Him) hath not urged me for necessity's sake to enter 
this profession. Colman, at his coming over, informed me that 
you told him that an allowance of £1000 should be appointed 
for necessity of intelligences and other needful services yearly. 
I have not since, either in the latter establishments, nor by any 
other direction, heard thereof; and yet my charges (by reason 
the country alloweth neither carriages nor other means of ease) is 
so extreme, as I am constrained to pray your honour to hasten 
by your good means some course to lighten me in that respect, 
for I see no reason why my purse should bear it." 

There is a very curious letter in the State Paper Office, from 
George Cranmer, dated on the 20th of April, about a fortnight 
after this last of Willoughby's, and which, as giving a contem- 
porary account of the negotiations in which the latter was en- 
gaged, must find a place in our narrative. It is addressed to 
" Mr. Secretary Davison V' ^^^ is remarkable for continuing to 

1 The writer, George Cranmer, " was a gentleman of singular hope, the 
eldest son of Thomas Cranmer, son of Edmund Cranmer, the archbishop's 



give him that title and appellation fourteen months after his com- 
mittal to the Tower for the affair of Mary, Queen of Scots ; 
that unjust and cruel imprisonment, which was of so long dura- 
tion, but which, although it suspended his powers as secretary, 
does not appear to have abrogated or annulled them. His vacant 
situation was never filled ; but his heavy punishment by loss of 
liberty, and the infliction of a severe fine, for the crime of having 
obeyed the reiterated commands of Elizabeth, embittered a life 
which had been devoted to her service. For weeks (after once 
presenting it) had he detained the warrant for Mary's execution ; 
even after it had received the royal signature, he took upon him 
to enquire whether it were to be really carried into effect ^ ; but 
having never concealed his impression that Elizabeth could not 
be in safety while Mary lived, he was probably fixed on as a 
proper victim to appease the filial indignation of James of Scot- 
land at his mother's death. But to return to the letter addressed 
to him — it throws some light on the late proceedings in Holland, 
and runs thus : 

" May it please your honour, I am afeard lest at this time I 
have verified that old saying in myself, that fools while they seek 



brother." He was educated at Corpus Cliristi College, Oxford, and was the 
friend and pupil of the good and learned Hooker, the much-esteemed com- 
panion of Edwin, afterwards Sir Edward Sandys, and secretary to the 
unfortunate Davison. He afterwards filled the same office under Sir Henry 
Killigrew, when sent on an embassy to France, and ended his career in 
Ireland, where he accompanied Lord Mountjoy in his enterprise against the 
rebels. On the death of Killigrew, Lord Mountjoy had succeeded in attach- 
ing him to him ; and at a battle near Charlingford, he received a fatal 
wound, which " put an end both to his life, and the great hopes that were 
conceived of him." — See Isaac Walton's Life of Hooker, p. 17- 
^ Nicholas's Life of Davison, p. ^5. 257. 

A a 2 



180 



COMMAND AND COUNTERMAND. 



to avoid one extremity, fall into another ; for, as I must needs 
confess, I have given your honour just occasion of displeasure 
against me for my long silence, which yet hath not proceeded 
from a forgetful or undutiful mind, but rather from that inward 
testimony I bear unto myself of mine own inability ; so now, on 
the other side, I fear lest in avoiding that blemish of silence, I 
have by my tediousness incurred a far greater. I have pre- 
sumed to present unto your honour these poor fruits of mine own 
labour, which it may please you to lay aside for Mr. Francis ^ to 
turn over at his good leisure ; for that your honour should vouch- 
safe them the reading, I know they are not worthy. 

" My Lord Willoughby and Mr. Killigrew received letters 
from her Majesty, much to the same effect, chiefly to persuade 
the States to join with her highness towards the intended treaty 
of peace, and also to stay their violent proceedings against Colonel 
Sonoy and some others ; which proposition of Mr. Killigrew's, 
being delivered to the States General in French, it pleased him 
also to send the same in Latin, according to this draft of mine, to 
the particular provinces of Guelderland, Friesland, and Over- 
issell. Again, my Lord Willoughby received a new charge, to 
deal roundly with the States for the Colonel Sonoy, according to 
the which commandment this other proposition was drawn ; but 
before the delivery thereof to the States, came a countermand 
from her Majesty, because there was but slender hope of the 
peace to make fair weather here, and work all good means of 
reconcilement, lest otherwise these men by over-hard dealing 
might be moved to take some desperate course for themselves, 
and so her Majesty lose both them and the peace. Since which 



^ Mr. Francis Davison. 



commandment from her highness, and since my Lord of Leices- 
ter's resignation, which both came at one time, a sudden altera- 
tion hath followed — great hope of conformity in these men, great 
friendship between the Count Maurice and my Lord Willoughby ; 
and particularly for the matter of Medenblicke, one of the great- 
est sores that galled them, it is compounded with contentment 
for the soldiers, and honourable conditions for the Colonel (Sonoy) 
himself, to whom is granted to keep the place with a garrison of 
one hundred and fifty men, and to retain all his former offices 
and charges until the Council of State now to be established, 
together with my Lord Willoughby and Mr. Killigrew, whom 
her Majesty hath appointed in commission to hear the said con- 
troversy, shall determine the contrary. Myself attended on Mr. 
Killigrew thither to Medenblicke, where he fell into a sharp 
burning ague, which drove him back again to the Hague. This 
unfortunate opportunity of his sickness (whereof, yet God be 
thanked, he is now well recovered) I have taken to trouble your 
honour not only with this long and frivolous discourse, but also 
these scribbled propositions here inclosed ; wherein I beseech 
your honour to pardon my boldness. Thus most humbly recom- 
mending my poor service to your honour's favourable and gra- 
cious acceptation, I take my leave. At the Hague, the 20th 
April, '88. 

" Your honour's most humbly bounden in duty, 

''G. Cranmer\" 
The severe sickness which had detained Lord Willoughby was 
so far abated, as to permit him to undertake the journey to 
Medenblicke, and conclude matters there, a week after the de- 

^ Letter in the State Paper Office, Holland, vol. 52, from " George Cran- 
nier to Mr. Secretary Davison, Hague, April 20, 1588." 



182 



STIPULATIONS. 



parture of Killigrew and the others. He arrived on the ] 3th of 
April, and found the town in no small state of confusion ; but 
succeeded first in pacifying the soldiers by the promise of three 
months' pay in ready money, and the supply of their necessities ; 
having first made arrangements by letter with Count Maurice, 
that the latter promise should be performed by the States. On 
the 19th, Count Maurice entered the town, and was received by 
the burghers in arms. On the 20th, the two commanders sat in 
judgment on some difficulties as to the " establishing of religion," 
on the policy of Medenblicke, and the safety of Colonel Sonoy ; 
and on the 21st, Willoughby, acting as mediator between him 
and Maurice, " reduced the differences " to those terms already 
mentioned by Mr. Cranmer, and which were originally ac- 
corded at the Hague ^ ; and certain companies being dismissed, 
" address " was given them to such other garrisons as should be 
approved of by Sonoy and the captains. 

It was stipulated, that Maurice should give up his desire of 
putting into Medenblicke some troops displeasing to Sonoy, who 
in his turn should consent to receive the Count's own company 
under his orders, as a temporary arrangement only. These 
troops were to pledge themselves, by oath, to obey the Colonel 
in all things ; and the burghers of the city were required to make 
similar protestations of submission ; to which they consented : 
and after a few more arrangements, and the tendering of an oath 
of fidelity on the part of the Colonel towards Count Maurice and 
the country, an amicable understanding between the parties was 
happily effected^. 



• On the 4th of April. 

2 Lord Willoughby to Sir F. Walsingham, Medenblicke, April 21, 1588. 
State Paper Office, Holland, vol. 52. 



THE queen's letter. 183 



On the 27th of April, the deputies of the Provinces assembled 
at the Hague, in order to establish the Council of State, and 
other necessary matters ; and " I think," writes Mr. Killigrew 
to Lord Burghley, " they mean to advance Count Maurice, who 
now agreeth well with Lord Willoughby ; and my Lord Wil- 
loughby doth so carry himself, that he hath credit with them ; 
for such they like of, both to govern and assist, as they may rule 
and not stand in awe of, as they did of my Lord Leicester, 
without cause '." 

After all his trouble and anxiety, the following letter from the 
Queen, with her warm approval of his efforts, must have been 
very satisfactory to Lord Willoughby : ^ 

*' By the Queen. 

" Right trusty and well beloved, we greet you well ; and let 
you wit, that finding by your late letters, written to our Council, 
with what great care and diligence you have travailed in such 
matters as were by our own letters given you in charge ; as, 
namely, for the compounding of the difference between the Count 
Maurice and the Colonel Sonoy, about the town of Medenblick, 
and the renewing of his commission ; for drawing the States 
General to take a settled course for the government of the Pro- 
vinces United upon the dissolving of the Council of Estate, and 
for the appeasing of the mutinies of certain towns, as Naarden 
and Gertrudenburgh against the said States. And that for the 
first, touching Medenblick, your travail hath had very good suc- 
cess, greatly to our honour and contentment; and for that we 
understand that the Count Maurice showed himself very con- 

1 Extract of a letter from Mr. Killigrew to Lord Burghley, Hague, April 
26, 1588. State Paper Office, Holland, vol. 52. 



formable therein, we think meet you let him know how thank- 
fully we accept thereof. And for the second, touching the 
establishing of the government, you had also hy your industry 
and well handling of the matter, drawn the States General to 
assemble to consult about the erecting of a Council of Estate ; 
and that the particular states of Frizeland and Utrecht, by the 
persuasion of one sent by you unto them for that purpose, were 
content to concur with the other provinces of Holland and Zea- 
land therein, being before, as we have been informed, inclined to 
have made a breach from the rest of the United Provinces. And 
lastly, that for the appeasing of the said mutinies of the towns of 
Naarden and Gertrudenburgh, you were repaired to Dort, mean- 
ing there to enter into treaty with the said towns, to reduce them 
to conformity with the General States. The good success of your 
labours in those especial matters falling out greatly to our content- 
ment, we have thought good to testify unto you by our own let- 
ters, for your comfort, the good liking we have thereof And 
whereas we perceive by other letters of yours to our council, that 
upon a motion made by you unto the States, by virtue of our 
letters directed to you, for the pressing of the said States to see 
the towns of Ostend and Bergen op Zoom furnished with victuals, 
munition, and all other manner of necessaries fit to withstand a 
siege, or else to resume them into their own hands, that you are 
of opinion, that the said States will be glad to accept of the said 
offer. We are therefore to let you understand, that we could be 
very well content to perform the same, so as the said towns 
might be by them sufficiently furnished with men, munition, 
&c." 

The Queen proceeds to state clearly and authoritatively what 
her intentions are as to these two towns of Ostend and Bergen op 



Elizabeth's displeasure. 185 



Zoom, now so immediately threatened as objects of the enemy's 
attack. If, she says, the States are able to provide and furnish 
them with the means of defence, and really have power to pro- 
tect them against the enemy in case of siege, she is quite willing 
to deliver them into their hands, and desires to have an early 
reply to this proposition. On the other hand, if it should appear 
to Lord Willoughby, that they do not possess the means of pro- 
tecting these towns themselves, but that their defence must rest 
with the English garrisons, then Elizabeth directs him to make 
known to them, that they must assist her in victualling the said 
places, and providing them with ammunition, or that she will 
rather choose to yield them up to the enemy, "than hazard the 
loss of them to her dishonour, for lack of necessary supply." 
Furthermore, she empowers the General to reserve such com- 
panies of armed men as he shall think meet within these places, 
but to see that the States observe their part in furnishing the 
magazines with stores. 

The rest of the Queen's letter is written rather in displeasure 
at his having removed Sir William Reade ^ from the government 
of Bergen op Zoom, and conferred it on Sir William Drury, 
whose capacity she appears to doubt : " We cannot," she writes, 
" but let you understand how greatly we mislike thereof, con- 
sidering that yourself have often signified unto us the doubt you 
had that the enemy meant to attempt the said town ; as in all 
likelihood it is so to be thought, in respect he hath of late, as you 
write, drawn down some of his forces that way, as also of the 
great annoyance which the country thereabout receiveth by the 

1 Su' William Reade was on the eve of departure for England on the 21st 
of April. According to Willoughby 's letter of that date to Sir F. Walsing- 
ham, he says he had so importuned him to go, that he could not deny hira. 

B b 



186 AFFAIR OF DRURY. 



garrison of the said town, which might rather have given you 
cause to place the sufRcientest person and best experienced cap- 
tain we have there, to take such charge of that place now in this 
time of danger, than a gentleman of so small a continuance and 
experience in martial matters as Drury is '. And therefore we 
do look that hereafter in the disposing of the governments of 
towns of like importance, you shall make us privy to the choice 
of the persons, before you establish them in their government^." 
This affair of Drury seems to have given the Queen great 
displeasure, and yet Willoughby's letter^ to Sir Francis Walsing- 
ham, on the 12th of May, gives a very satisfactory explanation 
of his conduct. After expressing how painfully wounded he felt 
by her Majesty's dislike of his appointment, he proceeds to state 
how it came about, and how little in fact it had depended upon 
him, having been promised and arranged before he came into 
authority. He thus enters on the matter, expressing a hope 
that he may " find so much grace as to have his actions brought 
to trial, the true difference of honest men from false parades : my 
blame," he continues, "is for Sir William Drury's government of 

^ With all due deference to the sovereign, she might probably be a less 
good judge of her subjects' military talents, than her general. 

2 Queen Elizabeth to Lord Willoughby, April 29, 1588. State Paper 
Office, Holland, vol. 53. 

2 There is an intermediate letter of Lord Willoughby's, in the State Paper 
i Office, with regard to the town of Gertrudenburgh, which the States and 
I Count Maurice had agreed was best held in the Queen's name and behalf, 
I which he urges was a place of great strength, well supplied, and of import- 
ance to keep from the enemy, being a frontier town, and aflFording such a 
passage into Holland, as would be the greatest annoyance to the country, 
i and detrimental to her Majesty. He conceives it advisable it should be held 
j for Elizabeth at the charge of the States, and awaits the Council's orders. 
I State Paper Office, Holland, vol. 53. 



willoughby's explanation. 187 

Berges. In all time it hath been allowed for a man to seek his 
own preferment. If Mr. Drury compounded with Sir William 
Reade, (as I think there be acts extant,) and by his own endeavour 
won the States and Count Maurice (who certainly conceive well 
of him) ; besides all these, assuring me he had my Lord Steward's 
(Leicester's) promise passed to him, as one whom he loved, I saw 
not how I could hinder a gentleman's fortune, in a matter con- 
cerning not my authority, but theirs that gave it," 

Another subject gave Willoughby also some pain. The Queen 
had misinterpreted his letters as to Sir John Norris, written, as 
he says, merely to spare her an unnecessary charge. " If I were 
sufficient," says he, " Sir John Norris were superfluous ; but if 
I were not, (as I confess I am not,) I could not otherwise in duty 
but advertise her Majesty the best for her service." No doubt 
he alluded to the old grievance of the incomplete condition in 
which Norreys' troop was, when delivered up to him. If the 
whole cost was to be defrayed to Norreys, of course the expenses 
attendant on supplying its deficiencies must fall on Willoughby, 
who could not be expected to defray them from his own purse, 
but would have another claim on the Queen and the government. 
" This much," he adds, " I may say of myself, (without offence 
to Master Norris,) that our ages are equal, my continuance and 
expenses in her Majesty's service as much as his, though his for 
the States of more antiquity. And with your favour, I may fur- 
ther say, things concurred not in the example of the Admiral 
with the young King of Navarre and Prince of Conde, which 
matter is sufficient apparent in print by La Nove himself ^ who 

^ La Nove, whose " Political and Military Discourses " are still extant, 
distinguished himself in war, and espoused the side of the Calvinists against 
the Roman Catholics. He was surnamed Bras de Fer, having lost his left 

B b 2 



was Mr. Norris's grand master, and under whose school (if it were 
thought fit) I will willingly range myself, esteeming it best to go 
to the heads and fountains, where question is to gain experience." 
He bows to the Queen's opinion of " so experienced a gentle- 
man " as Norris, whom he considers " more happy than a 
Caesar " to possess it; but again reminds the secretary, that the 
charge he himself bears " is against his earnest suit, given him in 
a most turbulent season," and that he " shall in a quieter time 
and better terms (with all humility) require to be quit of it." 
There is something fine in his patience to endure it in a period 
of difficulty and confusion, and not to intend to resign till he 
should have performed all the service in his power, suffering too 
as he did from ill health ; so that, as he says, he was in one 
sense too young for such a command, in another too old, having 
"many infirmities incident to age, such as I cannot endure the 
pains. For truly, sir, it is well known how vehemently I am 
troubled with sickness, having from my youngest days been sub- 
ject thereunto ; whereby I am fain many times not to do that 
service I would, and often constrained with a serviceable mind, 
beyond my might, to do more than I am able." 

He concludes this letter by regretting some further blame 
thrown on him with regard to the disposing of a company on one 
Price, and strongly denies his having conferred such command on 
any one since he had held his present authority ; adding that the 
States had often complained of " bad captains absent in England, 
and that he had written home concerning them, that they might 
be supplied with worthy men ; in which choice number he named 



arm at the taking of Fontenay ; he served under Henry the Fourth, and in 
the year 1591 received a fatal wound, of which he died a few days after. 



THE queen's letter. 189 



Sir William Reade, the serjeant-major, Mr. Wilford, and Captain 
Price, but never had answer. You may well judge what com- 
panions they be, and what they merit, that dare advertise princes 
so manifest untruths ; and whether it is fit to allow slanders, 
though necessary to encourage true accusations \" 

The Queen's resentment, however, did not easily blow over ; 
and her next communication was a very angry one, and suffi- 
ciently vexatious to her very faithful servant, Willoughby. It 
was thus worded : 



"Elizabeth R. 

" Right trusty and well-beloved, we greet you well. We 
found it very strange, in that you have not only removed 
our servant Reade from the government of Bergen op Zoom ', 
especially in this time, when, by your own report, it appeareth 
that it is greatly to be doubted that the enemy will attempt 
somewhat against the same town, having placed there our servant 
Drury, void of all skill and experience in martial affairs, but 
have also licensed the said Reade's repair home, being one of 
those whom we especially appointed to assist you with his advice 
and counsel in the direction of martial affairs, in the time of your 
government there ; which being done without our privity, you 
have greatly failed of your duty therein, letting you know that if 
the like offence had been committed either in our father's time, 



^ Letter of Willoughby to Sir F. Walsingham, from Armen, May 12, 1588. 
State Paper Office, Holland, vol. 53. 

2 Be it remembered, that Willoughby appealed to deeds then extant, to 
prove that there was an agreement on the subject between Reade and Drury, 
consent for the appointment of the latter by the States, and a promise from 
the Queen's late general, Leicester. 



190 morgan's appointment. 



or any of our progenitors, the same would have been punished 
with all severity ; assuring you, that if in case you shall commit 
the like, especially in such a time as the enemy is strong in the 
field, ready to make some present attempt, and that you yourself 
being but a young martial man, had more need of increase of 
assistance for advice, than to lack a man of Reade's experience ; 
we mean not to let pass such a neglect of duty in silence. And 
as touching the town of Bergen op Zoom, our pleasure is that 
Sir W. Drury shall be presently removed, and Morgan, the 
bearer hereof, placed in his place ; for which purpose, we will 
have you deal effectually with the States, whom we know you 
shall find most ready to satisfy us therein, in respect of the 
good service they have received from the said Morgan, whom 
we know they will be glad to gratify in respect thereof. 
And we are also pleased that the said Morgan shall for your 
better assistance supply the place of lieutenancy ^ that our ser- 
vant Sir W. Reade held there, by virtue of our late establish- 
ment, with the entertainment of forty shillings by the day ; for 
the payment whereof from time to time as it shall grow due unto 
him, our pleasure is, that you direct your warrant to Sir Thomas 
Shirley, Knight, treasurer of our wars in these countries, which 
our pleasure is shall have beginning from the 12th of June next 
ensuing. 

" And whereas we have been informed, that one Antonio 
Veluti, a subject of the Duke of Florence, hath been of late 
taken and ransomed by some of the garrison of Berghes, and 
very ill-handled, contrary to the laws of nations, being none of 



1 It must have been most vexatious to Willoughby to have Morgan placed 
so near him. 



the King of Spain's subjects ; which kind of proceeding may 
justly give cause to other princes to conceive that these wars are 
not carried in such an honourable sort, as appertaineth and is 
agreeable with the laws of nations ; our pleasure therefore is, 
that you take some such course, out of hand, as there may be 
present restitution made unto him of such sums as may have 
been paid by the said Veluti. And, further, we are to advise 
you to be careful hereafter, that no such barbarous act be com- 
mitted, for that such kind of proceedings cannot but render 
us and the cause hateful unto the world. 

" Given under our signet at our manor of Greenwich, the 14th 
of May, 1588, in the thirtieth year of our reign. 

" To our right trusty and well-beloved Lord Willoughby, 
our Lieutenant- General of our forces in the Low Coun- 



tries \" 



In the mean while Willoughby contmued to make the best 
preparations he could in case of attack from the enemy, and for 
the preservation of the Queen's rights, and payment of the 
charges due to her. He went to Middleburgh with Sir William 
Russell, from whence they jointly wrote to inform the Lords of 
the Privy Council in England how matters stood, recommending 
that the Queen should either "royally, chargeably, and reso- 
lutely," take the towns she required into her own hands ; " for 
men opinioned in their own conceits, are encouraged by relent- 

* Letter in the State Paper Office, Holland, vol. 53. There is a curious 
admonitory note added to this letter in Elizabeth's own hand, a thing which 
often occurs in her despatches to noblemen and public ministers ; it runs 
thus : " Take care of the Duke of Florence's subject, and leave to be un- 
advised in rash dealing." This of course alludes to Veluti. 



ings." Or in case she be not disposed to do more than assist 
them, that she should " continue Count Maurice in her favour, 
by bearing him up with hope of his honour and profit." Also, 
that she should, at all events, accept Gertrudenburgh ; the pos- 
session of which, and of Berges, would enable her always to 
insist on the repayment of her charges, and give her the power, 
by exchange, of making sure of her cautionary towns '. 

About this period. Commissioners were appointed by the 
Queen of England and the King of Spain to enter into nego- 
ciations for a peace, This was but a deceitful proceeding on both 
sides : neither party had the least intention of carrying it through. 
It is known in history as the Busborough treaty ; and, on the 
part of the Spaniards, was under the direction of the Prince of 
Parma. Philip of Spain was only desirous of gaining time to fit 
out his formidable armada, and Elizabeth was equally anxious to 
prepare for its reception. Each mistrusted the apparently pacific 
intentions of the other ; but the Spanish ministers were the most 
thoroughly deceived, and not aware that all their most secret 
intentions were fully known to the English government. 

The rumour of this intended cessation of hostilities had, how- 
ever, reached the Low Countries, and greatly embarrassed Wil- 
loughby's proceedings, who scarcely knew how to act, or to 
suppress it, " being altogether ignorant what course had been 
followed ;" and probably, if we may judge by his general cha- 
racter, peculiarly averse to stratagem, and the tricks of courts. 
He appointed a kind of envoy to Ostend, that he might learn the 



^ Letter of Lord Willougliby, Sir W. Russell, and others, to the Lords of 
the Privy Council, from Middleburgh, May 17, 1588. State Paper Office, 
vol. 53. 



ARRIVAL AT OSTEND. 193 



proceedings of the Commissioners there ; but they removed 
thence, and he learnt nothing. 

Sir WilKam Reade being gone, and evidently not purposing to 
return, Willoughby was very anxious that one of his offices, that 
of Lieutenant- Colonel of the Infantry, should, by her Majesty 
and the Privy Council, be conferred on Mr. Wilford ; and the 
post of Sergeant-Major on his " cousin. Captain Vere^ ;" which 
favours he earnestly solicited for them, " not doubting but her 
Majesty should find all humble thankfulness and duty in the 
one," and in the other (though but young) experience, art, dis- 
cretion, and valour sufficient to exercise the same^. 

A more busy and warlike scene was now approaching; and 
fortunately the English were at the moment on peaceable terms 
with such of the States as had been refractory, and Count Maurice 
was amicably disposed^. 

On the 30th of May, Lord Willoughby arrived rather hastily at 
Ostend, in consequence of some " advertisements" he had received 
as to the designs of the enemy on the town ; and immediately on 
his appearance there, which was at an early hour of the morning, 
he despatched his Trumpet to the Lords Commissioners of her 
Majesty, in order to learn how matters stood. Their answ^er 
confirmed the report ; and the messenger, on his return, saw the 
hostile troops not only marching towards Ostend, but encamped 
within two miles of the town ; however, they soon drew nearer *. 

^ Afterwards a distinguished commander in the Low Countries. 

2 Lord Willoughby to Sir F. Walsingham, Middleburgh, May 23, 1588. 
State Paper Office, Holland, vol. 53. He adds, that he had appointed also a 
Provost-Marshal. 

3 Willoughby to Lord Burghley, May, 1588. State Paper Office. 

* Willoughby to the Privy Council, Ostend, June 1, 1588. State Paper 

Office, Holland, vol. 54. 

c c 



194 GERTRUDENBURGH. 



Things remained still tolerably quiet, till the 3rd of June ; Wil- 
loughby then despatched Lieutenant Thompson, on horseback, to 
gather some intelligence of them ; but though he went as far as 
Newport, he brought home no certain news. Of course they 
must have left their first position ; and the General, thinking it 
possible they had encamped behind the sand-hills near the sea, 
sent one of the ships of Zealand, which was in attendance on 
him, and which brought him word, that " they were risen, and 
that they were certainly informed by some fishermen whom they 
met at sea," that they were gathered to head for France, and 
some others say for the islands and those parts. 

At the same moment, Willoughby received the most pressing 
intreaties from the towns of Gertrudenburgh and Camphire, 
seconded by the solicitations of the Count and the States, to 
hasten to the adjustment of the affairs of these towns for her 
Majesty's service. Thus urged, he did the best he could for the 
place before he quitted it ; giving orders for its fortification and 
re-inforcing its garrison, and, as far as time would permit, putting 
it in a posture of defence in case of attack \ Then turning his 
attention to the affairs of Gertrudenburgh, he appears to have 
satisfied the States, and even received their thanks ^. 

On the 5th of June we find him at Treleburgh ', and on the 
7th at Middleburgh, where, he says, the defences are very weak, 

* 

1 Willoughby to the Lords of the Council, Ostend, June 4, 1588. State 
Paper Office, Holland, vol. 54. 

2 MS., British Museum. 

3 From this place he excuses himself to the Lords of the Council, as to 
the not having discharged some captains who chose to absent themselves. 
He reminds them how he had represented the matter frequently, and alleges 
his willmgness to cashier them, but that they defend themselves under the 
protection of the government. He recommends Mr. Wilford, the sergeant- 



THE DUKE OF PARMA. 195 



and the small numbers they have so tied to garrisons, that they 
can hardly shift them, " as was proved when the enemy presented 
himself before Ostend," and which, he seems to think, was likely 
to be proved again, the adverse party being strong enough to 
attempt ten, and the English not strong enough to keep one, such 
a difficulty is made about supplies \ 

Ostend continued in peril, and the Governor (Sir John Con- 
way), writing to inform Lord Willoughby that he did not con- 
sider it as tenable four hours, or four days at the most, the 
General, who had just countermanded the march of some troops 
for its assistance, now directed two companies from Berghes, 
according to the orders of the Privy Council, and sent also in its 
name to the Governor of Flushing, requiring three companies for 
the same purpose from that place. 

Willoughby also received the news (which he transmitted to 
England) that Count Mansfield was appointed Governor of the 
Low Countries, and his son Charles, marshal, in the Duke of 
Parma's absence. Also, that the Duke had removed all his 
goods and baggage from Antwerp, which looked like a purpose 
of settling wherever he went ^. 

About this period, Sir Thomas Morgan arrived at Middle- 
burgh, and did not receive (as might be expected indeed) a par- 
ticularly agreeable welcome from Lord Willoughby, who was 
naturally incensed at his appointment. Morgan informs Sir F. 



major, and Captain Price, in their stead, as " gentlemen of good worth and 
desert." June 5, 1588, State Paper Office. 

' Letter of Willoughby to Burghley, Middleburgh, June 7, 1588. State 
Paper Office, Holland, vol. 54. 

2 Willoughby to the Privy Council, June 11, 1588. State Paper Office, 

Holland, vol. 54. 

c c 2 



196 morgan's reception. 



Walsingham, by letter, that finding Lord Willoughby at Middle- 
burgh, he presented to him her Majesty's letters, &c. " He, 
reading them, presently answered me efTectually, that concerning 
the placing of Sir William Drury at Bergen op Zoom, it was 
not his doing, but the States ; and as touching the lieutenant- 
colonelship, he had granted it away before he came ; and fur- 
ther says, he will stand upon his commission, I using all 
reverence and duty unto him. The next morning 1 came again 
unto him, and finding him to continue still in one answer unto 
me, and in the afternoon the like ; and having further con- 
ference with him, said that he would deliver over his patent 
unto me. I answering him that I came not for that intent, 
but came to do any honour and service that I could." Morgan 
querulously complains that all the officers were so ill-disposed 
towards him, from the fear of offending the General, that not 
one would even speak to him ; and Lord Willoughby himself, 
he imagined, was determined to put all the disgrace upon him 
that he could \ 

It is evident that thrust into authority and position, which 
(although a gallant soldier) he wanted other qualifications to fill 
with dignity and grace, Morgan was not liked or cordially 
received ; however, in a few days. Lord Willoughby and he 
appear to have been on better terms, though, with regard to the 
lieutenancy, the latter still continued unbending, declaring that 
having promised it to Mr. Wilford, he would rather lose his 
place than suffer Sir Thomas Morgan to enjoy it ; but as to 
Berges, he became more willing to instal him in its governorship. 



^ Sir Thomas Morgan to Sir F. Walsingham, Middleburgh, June 12, 
1588. State Paper Office, Holland, vol. 54. 



THE SPANISH ARMADA. 197 



and treated him personally with greater kindness and considera- 
tion \ 

In the mean while, orders were sent from England to recal 
home two thousand of her Majesty's soldiers in the Low Coun- 
tries. The invasion of the Spanish armada was now not only 
reported, but confidently expected ; and every preparation was 
making, every means of defence resorted to, to receive the 
so-called " invincible " fleet in a manner likely to chastise its 
arrogance and presumption. Willoughby, longing for action, and 
feeling that the English troops left behind were not more than 
could be ranged easily under the cautionary towns, and possibly 
with a recollection of the late encroachment on his authority, 
earnestly begged to be allowed to return home, and to be em- 
ployed in active service, either under his "first honourable 
General, my Lord Steward, or else whomsoever it shall please 
her Majesty to appoint," offering to bring over with him, " with- 
out lessening any of her Majesty's troops," a force of three hun- 
dred horsemen, well mounted, and brave soldiers^. 

So earnest was Willoughby on the subject, that he despatched 
to Walsingham, to Burghley, and to the Privy Council, a full 
and complete statement of his " reasons " for desiring to be re- 
lieved of his authority, "already being made void." They are 
seven in number, and are in substance thus : 

First, he has been denied the power of appointing his own 

* This account is given by Mr. Wilkes to Sir F. Walsingham, according to 
Morgan's direction. He also affirms that Willoughby was now willing to 
put him into Berges, but desirous it should be done by the States, rather 
than by himself. Letter in the State Paper Office, June 17th, 1588. Hol- 
land, vol. 54. 

2 Willoughby to Sir F. Walsingham, Hague, 23rd June, 1588. State 
Paper Office, Holland, vol. 54. 



lieutenant- colonel, granted to all colonels and the least captains; 
he having made choice of a ''man of worth and service V' and 
another " nominated to him, unacquainted with him and his pro- 
ceedings ; and appointed governor of a town, wherein he being 
engaged, cannot follow the other services, and withal unfurnished 
of language ^ ;" by which means Lord Willoughby did not receive 
the help he required ; the Queen, though ill-served, had a double 
charge ; the authority of a general was infringed, and expressly 
his own commission, and the later one received from her Majesty 
herself. 

His second complaint is the nomination of captains being taken 
in a sort from him, " and he left (as some of Flushing have not 
spared to say) to be but as a clerk, from whence the writs and 
warrants in law courts are to be fetched." 

His third is the not having the disposal of the treasure, except 
warrants for lending ; so that in case of loss of men and arms to 
the different captains by the fortune of war, they had " no means 
to be relieved, but from the General's purse, a charge he is not 
able to support." 

In the fourth place, " almost to his undoing," he had no cer- 
tain allowance for the carrying of intelligence, for transportation, 
voyaging, &c. 

In the fifth place, he is annoyed by the dismissal of Commis- 
saries of Musters, who were such before his arrival, whom he 
continued, and never had cause to blame, who were acquainted 
with the service, and agreeable to the States, and by whose 
removal great confusion would ensue in the re-imbursing of the 
treasure. 



Mr. Wilford. 



2 Sir Thomas Morgan. 



Sixthly, it hath been always usual for all private regiments to 
have a provost-marshal, and (Willoughby urges) an unheard-of 
thing for a General to be. without one. It was allowed at Flush- 
ing and Brill ; and, he adds, he can conceive no reason why such 
an officer should be denied to him, unless indeed it was deter- 
mined that her Majesty's troops should never remove, even from 
one garrison to the other, nor the General be allowed a disci- 
plined escort of men for his own safety, nor should be expected 
to punish either " traitor, runaw^ay, robber, or offender whatso- 
ever." 

Lastly, that he can scarcely be termed a General, that " hath 
new reconciled " and unacquainted persons forced upon him ^ ; 
those to be absent when he most needs their help ; no power 
even to nominate a captain, or to reward any "well-doer," to 
hold office, or to give office, and v^^ho is rendered contemptible 
by the small respect shown him. Unwilling, therefore, to hold 
the honourable post of General, so shorn of its privileges as to be 
a precedent for undervaluing it in times to come, he declares his 
desire rather to serve her Majesty as a private adventurer, than 
to continue where he is. " Rather," he says,' "than abuse her 
Majesty's service, {nomine sine re,) he will suffer voluntarily 
what may be laid on him. For as he hath been taught, {in hello) 
^ nan licet bis peccare ; so dainty a thing is it to fail, and fail must 
he needs that wants good groundworks ^" 

His complaints do not certainly appear unreasonable ; and 
that he had good reasons for standing out in the matter of Mor- 



^ Morgan again ! 
Document in the State Paper Office, called " Reasons for moving the 



Lord Willoughby to desire to be discharged from his government 
29, 1588, Holland, vol. 54 



June 



200 



MORGAN S COMPLAINT. 



gan, appears even from the words of the latter, who, writing to 
Sir Francis Walsingham, on the 9th of July, says, he finds 
" that my Lord Willoughby can by no means deal for me as her 
Majesty hath commanded, consistently with his honour." 

The States had sent to England, to notify that they would have 
Drury removed, either by her Majesty's express commandment, 
or by the hands of six of her Council ; meanwhile Morgan for- 
warded a petition to the General, on two subjects : the one re- 
lating to his appointment as Governor of Bergen op Zoom, the 
other to that of Lieutenant there, in the room of Sir William 
Reade. It was in answer to the first demand, that the General 
explained he could not proceed with honour ; and to the second 
he said, that he had returned answer thereof to her Majesty and 
the Lords of her Council ; "but," Morgan continues, "how he 
hath practised against me, that some of the States have certified 
me ; yea, and so far proceeded therein, that he gave them in- 
struction how to answer her Majesty's letter, to the end my 
request might be deferred ; thus may your honour understand 
how hardly I am dealt withal." 

He concludes his letter by an earnest protestation, " that un- 
less he may be employed in some more honorable place than that 
of a private captain, he will not show his face in the field, espe- 
cially seeing it must be at his direction, and for his honour, who 
neither regarded him nor his service \" 

In the course of the same month we find him still complaining 
and mourning over the hardship of ending his days in grief, and 
in all the mortification of being denied what his sovereign had 



^ Sir Thomas Morgan to Sir F. Walsingham, Hague, July 9, 1588. State 
Paper Office, Holland, vol. 55. 



granted to him after his long and faithful services, pained too by 
a report which had reached him, that the Queen had been in- 
formed he was not likely to serve faithfully at Bergen op Zoom. 
He makes a curious remark as to the government of this latter 
place ; observing, with bitterness, that if he " had so fair a lad}'^ 
as now the Governor there hath, to give the captains such enter- 
tainments as she doth in court-like pomps, feasts, and dancings, 
both by day and night, then should I have been desired, and 
then would they not have underwritten against me, for the con- 
tinuance of any other ^ : but such-like soldiers are fittest for such 
governments." He also consigns to the charge of Sir Francis 
Walsingham^, a letter of complaint and appeal to the Queen, 
which is still extant, and which begins thus : 

" May it please your most excellent Majesty : were it not I 
were too much crossed in these parts, by such as do not allow 
your Majesty's letters, but in such as they themselves are best 
contented, I would not have complained unto your most royal 
person, my most sovereign Queen and mistress ; but seeing it 
pleased your Majesty to send me over with most gracious letters 
unto my Lord Willoughby, as well for the government of Bergen 
op Zoom as for the place of lieutenancy, the one he having 
utterly refused, and yet doth withstand, the other he hath as 
little forwarded as any way advanced, so as in lieu of my accus- 
tomed service done to your Majesty and these countries, I must 
now spend my time in gazing after news, for lack of other em- 
ployments," &c. &c. He goes on to solicit her Majesty's royal 



^ This sho\v's that Willoughby 's nominee, Drury, was agreeable to the 

army. 

2 Sir T. Morgan to Sir F. Walsingham, Hague, July 31, 1588. State 

Paper Office, Holland, vol. 55. 

D d 



202 



DEPARTURE OF THE ADMIRAL. 



" passport to serve where he may best find relief," " such as must 
yield me maintenance either in sickness or age ; and withal not 
to discontinue the exercise of my profession, which I have so 
long travailed for ;" and expresses his reluctance to be pressed to 
"carry arms under so mighty a prince's subject, that shall no 
farther advance and allow their sovereign's letters and command- 
ments;" but adds, that he does and ever will remain her Ma- 
jesty's most dutiful subject ; concluding his letter with prayers 
for Elizabeth's long and happy life, with increase of honour, 
and victory against all her enemies, (whoever they may be,) 
" to the advancement of the glory of the Almighty :" an un- 
measured tone of flattery too common in those days ^ 

But we must return to Willoughby's own affairs, who had 
been occupied in despatching the two thousand men ordered to 
England by the Privy Council, and the vessels, twenty in num- 
ber, which the Queen desired should join her fleet, to guard the 
narrow seas. " The Admiral " also had departed on the 7th 
towards Zealand, with twenty-four more ships, and twelve hun- 
dred men, "ready to join with our fleet, if need should require." 
Necessity had obliged Willoughby to bestow the company of 
Captain Wingfield on the Serjeant- Major, which he could not 
now revoke, the Queen's service requiring the appointment, and 
the States disliking the absence of the captains ^. He had also 
had a disagreeable affair to adjust at Gertrudenburgh, where the 
delay of money which had been promised, had caused a dan- 
gerous spirit of discontent. Lord Willoughby appeared before 



1 Sir T. Morgan to the Queen, Hague, July, 1588. State Paper Office, 
Holland, vol. 55. 

2 Willoughby to the Privy Council, Dort, July 11, 1588. State Paper 
Office, Holland, vol. 55. 



LADY WILLOUGHBy's ARRIVAL. 203 

the gates, where (having expressed his desire to speak with the 
committees of the garrison) they repaired to hold parley with 
him, and received assurances that their money was actually on 
the road. Unpacified, however, by this promise, they burst into 
a tempest of rage, declaring that the States did but mock them ; 
and that if the treasure due was not sent in two days' time, with 
proper deputies to confer with them, they would take such steps 
as should render it unnecessary for any further messages to be 
brought. Nor did they deal only in angry speeches ; but rush- 
ing on one Menyn, who accompanied Willoughby on his mission, 
drew him into the town, declaring they would use him as 'such 
men deserved, he being, they alleged, of the number of those 
who deluded them with false hopes. Willoughby, offended at 
their violence, peremptorily insisted on Menyn's release ; and 
after two or three assemblies of the soldiers, and a determined 
and continued requisition on his part, he was with some diffi- 
culty restored to him \ when he departed, having in a measure 
allayed the fever of disappointment, though he secretly confessed 
his annoyance at the general disregard to promises evinced in the 
conduct of the States^. 

Lord Willoughby's next letter is dated from " his ship," before 
Gertrudenburgh, the 16th of July, where it appears he was 
joined by his wife ; on which occasion he remarks to his cor- 
respondent : " I found my wife here before I looked for her ; 
and though I was glad of her coming, yet, as well for those 
reasons it pleased you to use, as for my own reasons, I could 
have wished half of myself at home." Then follow his explana- 

^ Mr. Gilpin to Sir Francis Walsingliam, Hague, July 13, 1588. State 
Paper Office, Holland, vol. 55. 

2 Vide his letter of the 11th of July. 

D d 2 



tions as to the matters of Sir William Reade and Sir William 
Drury. " Concerning it pleased your Lordship," he writes, "so 
favourably to answer for me in those I was charged, although I 
perceive you have sufficiently answered them, I humbly thank 
you for it, as also that some of them are but mere fables, as that 
of Sir W. Hedes's discharge, wherein although he have a colour 
by a letter of mine, (as I hear he hath shown,) yet both the words 
therein cannot be urged to other sense, than my answer to a 
former letter of his in my. hand." . . . *' The good gentleman," he 
believed, had been taken " at advantage, and stirred up to that 
which in trial, he knew, he would both forswear, deny, and 
repent. For Sir William Drury's cause, I refer it to them, as I 
ever did, to whom it doth appertain, others loading me with a 
card often more than I should in right have. For her Majesty's 
displeasure, nothing is more grievous unto me, so much the more 
as I know how it proceedeth neither from her nature nor my 
desert ; duly beseeching that only favour, that in England or 
here I may be heard by committees ; and if I make not mine 
adversaries ashamed, let me be reputed the veriest knave ^ (bad 
person) and fool living. But what I wrote for my discharge, I 
writ in all humility : if aught therein have displeased her high- 
ness, I am most sorry from the bottom of my heart. I shall be 
more ready to venture all my life and fortune for her, than those 
that procure my ill, which let the worst fester in their hearts, and 
set the best face outward ; and truly, my Lord, our age requires 
whole, and not wounded men to serve ; which made me the 
bolder by uttering my malady to cure it sooner, though the 
cicatrice remains. If I might amid so great earnest, I would 

^ This word in the original is blotted out, and the following phrase sub- 
stituted. 



FROM GERTRUDENBURGH. 205 



say it were an ill lesson to teach soldiers the dissimulations of 
such as follow princes' courts in Italy ; for my own part, I bend 
myself, and crave God's assistance to be loyal and dutiful to 
my sovereign, and plain to all others that I honour. I see the 
finest reynard loses his best coat as well as the poorest sheep ; 
and therefore I humbly crave pardon for my rudeness therein, 
and that my nature might be rather tolerated in that my sad 
bluntness, than I posted to learn new finesses. 

" Concerning Sir Wm. Russell and me, I am not so opinioned 
to strive against the stream ; whatsoever is awarded, I most 
humbly beseech you once more read over these which I sent to 
your Lordship and the Lords, but I fear me were not delivered ; 
and though I shall always endure my sentence most readily, yet 
the rather when I may have my assertions compared with my 
opposite answers or objections before so competent judges. The 
answer to my articles I will conform myself unto ; but truly, sir, 
unless I may have such a lieutenant as Mr. Wilford, (if not him- 
self,) as may both for now and aftermore assist me with his 
counsel, otherwise I dare not undertake to lead her Majesty's 
troops to the wars. Thomas Morgan is a very sufficient gal- 
lant gentleman, and in very truth a very old soldie but we 
both have need of one who can both give and keep counsel 
better than ourselves ; but for action he is undoubtedly very 
able, if there were no more means to conquer than to give only 
blows. 

*' Schenk his cause is ill-informed ; for if the state of Ger- 
trudenburgh were thoroughly known, it is not so easy a matter 
as is conceived. Whatsoever may be thought to be done by 
practice of me, eye-witnesses will swear it is as hard a matter to 
make a governor amongst those altered persons, (without they 



only would call him in,) as an emperor without lictors ; in a few 
words, they will be kings themselves, use the Q. Majesty's 
countenance, and be paid by the contributions : but they will 
have no governors as they are persuaded ; for the country or their 

own private commodity will command in the end ^ 

" From aboard my ship before Gertrudenburgh." 

At this juncture, the Queen desired to bestow the government 
of the town on Sir Martin Schenk, and Willoughby had laboured 
to execute her wishes, and had granted him a passport, informing 
the refractory inmates that it was her pleasure he should forth- 
with be installed in the office. They, however, peremptorily 
refused to receive him, declaring their dislike to him to be even 
greater than to Count Hollock. Schenk refused to accept the 
passport, unless Willoughby would put him into the town, which 
he writes, " I could by no means do ; for with indifferent forces 
they would not receive me, and with less it would be hard for 
me to put a governor against their wills." 

The States, who had been on the eve of losing the place alto- 
gether, were now willing to conciliate the inhabitants by any 
means in their power, and prepared to yield to their wishes. 
Schenk then despatched his own messenger, who was imprisoned 
and laid in irons for seven days, and narrowly escaped a violent 
death. "I doubt not," Willoughby adds, "but when her Ma- 
jesty and your Lordship shall be well-informed of the state of 
the place, the nature and condition of the people, and how dan- 

^ This letter, in the original, bears no date but the day of the month. In 
the British Museum, the date 1587 has been in later times affixed to it. 
This is an evident mistake, as the events referred to it had not then taken 
place, nor was Willoughby at Gertrudenburgh till July, 1588. 



BLOCKADE OF BERCK. 207 



gerous a course hath been held, it will not seem strange, or give 
occasion of offence, that he is refused '." 

Shortly after the affair of Gertrudenburgh, the Lord-General 
received the news of the blockade of Berck, "into which place," 
he informs the Privy Council, " two of our English captains, 
Blunt and Shirley, have engaged themselves with their com- 
panies. These gentlemen, when I was at Ostend, (having before 
refused according to my potents to go to Berghes and other 
places,) solicited the Council of Estate and Mr. Killigrew, (who 
recommended the same as a matter of importance for the ser- 
vice,) that they might have their garrison appointed in Berck. 

" I have written to Count Maurice about the same, with pur- 
pose to leave no means unessayed, which may be found fit to 
help them, whose forwardness to be in place of service I cannot 
blame ; yet if the town should be lost, or they miscarry, I hope 
your Lordships will clear me from the same. 

"At Gertrudenburgh, July "18, 1588%" &c. &c. 

On the 30th of July, Willoughby received two letters from 
the Lords of the Privy Council, urging demands for ships and 
" shot^," for the defence of the seas against the common enemy of 

^ Willoughby to the Privy Council, Gertrudenburgh, July 17, 1588. State 
Paper Office, Holland, vol. 55. In this letter he again refers to the absent 
captains, and the obligation of filling their places, which he prays may be 
done ; he also mentions the having received answer by way of postils, to 
his reasons to the Privy Council, and Avill conform himself thereunto, not 
doubting to be allowed to " make choice of such a lieutenant as I shall hold 
agreeable." 

2 Willoughby to the Privy Council, State Paper Office, Holland, vol. 55. 

^ An old word for soldiers armed with muskets. See a work by F. 
Markara, called Five " Decades of Epistles of Warre," printed in 1622. 
Decad. i. Epist. 9, p. 33. 



208 



NEWS OF THE SPANISH FLEET. 



England and the States, the haughty power of Spain. A stronger 
tie can scarcely be found, than that which unites two parties for 
mutual protection and good offices, when the same danger 
threatens both ; and besides the aid which Elizabeth might justly 
demand from Holland for herself, that country was selfishly 
interested in opposing the ambition of the tyrant with whom it 
had so long contended. The requests of Elizabeth were pre- 
sented through her General ; and the shipping demanded had 
already, through his solicitations, been granted for the common 
defence, and had even put to sea. Willoughby had given a 
command to Sir Thomas Morgan, according to the desire of the 
Privy Council ; and had ordered Captain Vere to take out of the 
companies at Berghen, three hundred and sixty, to join him at 
Flushing. 

Count Maurice, before the forces had been required by Eliza- 
beth of the States, had determined, with their concurrence, to 
go himself to sea with two thousand men ; and he and Wil- 
loughby, acting in concert, were to have lain in wait to take 
advantage of any favourable opportunity, and to have made any 
attempt they could upon the Duke of Parma's forces. But it 
was now alleged, that the calling of the shot from Holland, pre- 
vented the execution of this plan. However, very certain intel- 
ligence arriving that the Spanish fleet had advanced so near, 
the Council propounded to the States General, than an extraor- 
dinary levy of ships should be made, both to assist the Queen of 
England, and to protect their own shores, should there be any 
danger of attack \ 

The movements of the Spaniards were watched by Willoughby 

1 Willoughby to the Privy Council, Hague, July 30, 1588. State Paper 
Office, Holland, vol. 55. 



with all the eagerness and promptitude of his nature. On the 
31st of July, having learnt that a large Spanish ship was hovering 
between Ostend and Sluys, he sent out three men-of-war to take 
her, and after a fight of two hours, she was captured, and several 
persons of rank in her were either killed or taken prisoners \ 

His own personal exploits were very successful : he overthrew 
a cornet of horse of Breda ^, and gained, with inferior numbers, 
an advantage over the enemy at Gertrudenburgh. " The Lord 
General," writes Mr. Digges to Sir Francis Walsingham, on the 
6th of August, " hath in person caused the soldiers of Gertru- 
denburgh to draw blood of the enemy, to his great honour, and 
their singular commendation ; the rather for that it was upon 
extreme disadvantage and inequality of number. Whereby he 
holdeth them most assured, although irreconcilable unto the 
States. They have lately put themselves in arms against the 
burghers, upon a practice of a burgomaster and others of his 
faction and party, to have yielded the town unto the States, and 
have put out some of the soldiers, but now pacified also again by 
the Lord General." The writer adds, " that the Lord General 
had been within these two days at Berghen, the States having 
intreated him to take measures for the safety and defence of the 
placed" 

By the 6th of August we find him again at Middleburgh ; the 
shot he had been directed to obtain, prepared to sail, but at one 



^ W, Borlas to Sir F. Walsingham. State Paper Office, Holland, August 3, 
1588. 

2 Edward Burnham to Sir F. Walsingham, Flushing, August 1, 1588. 
State Paper Office, Holland, vol. 56. 

3 James Digges (Muster-Master) to Sir F. Walsingham, August 6, 1588. 
State Paper Office, Holland, vol. 56. 

E e 



time detained by contrary winds, and afterwards by Willoughby, 
on his own responsibility, for a few days, " to see," as he him- 
self expresses it to the Lords of the Privy Council, "what might 
fall out, hoping in the mean time to understand from your Lord- 
ships (upon this passing-by of the enemy, and the Duke of 
Parma's hovering for advantage) some further direction." 

At this moment the baffled and dispersed Spanish fleet was 
passing northwards along the Dutch shores ; Willoughby longed 
to join in its defeat, and wrote a pressing entreaty to the Privy 
Council at home, to be permitted (as he had commission to fight 
by sea or land) to " procure Count Maurice, if possible, to go to 
sea with such forces as we are able to make, to pursue the said 
Duke of Parma, to impeach his coming forth and landing, though 
it be unto the coast of England ; for it will be most necessary 
that he be carefully hindered and (so much as may be) prevented, 
because the hope of the rest is wholly fixed upon his success ; 
and nothing can more let him, than to be followed in continual 
fight with the fleet of this country, mixed with some of her 
Majesty's forces." He adds, " that finding Lord Henry Sey- 
mour has returned to the Downs, he has sent away the soldiers, 
(that being the place first appointed for their meeting,) though he 
greatly fears their want may be felt where he is ; because about 
Saturday, the Duke, as we have intelligence, will put forth \" 

A few days after this, a reconciliation took place between 
Willoughby and Sir William Russell, which appears to have 
given great satisfaction to its witnesses. A disagreement had 
for some time disunited them, and had been subject of regret 



^ Willoughby to the Privy Council, Middleburgh, August 6, 1588. State 
Paper Office, Holland, vol. 56. 



to many ; and amongst others, it seems, to Lord Burghley, 
since a contemporary letter thus informs him of all the circum- 
stances : 

" My honourable good Lord, your most wise care and speech 
which at my last waiting upon you it pleased your Lordship to 
use, touching the holding together in amity two noble gentlemen 
employed in these parts, makes me assured that your honour will 
be no less glad to hear, that all unkindness between them is 
quite forgotten. It may therefore please you, my good Lord, to 
understand that this morning both their Lordships did meet upon 
the bank between Middleburgh and the Ramikins ; where, after 
courteous salutations, and almost an hour's debating some things, 
very friendly, there passed diverse kind entertainments, with 
mutual promise of love. And in the end, seeing a flight at a 
partridge, they parted with much contentment to themselves, and 
us that saw it. Hereof I thought my part to advertise your 
Lordship, as also that their own noble minds were so inclined 
hereunto, as there needed not so much mediation of men be- 
tween \" 

The vessels of the States did not join her Majesty's navy in 
the Downs ; but still, according to Willoughby's account, they 
had not been wanting in care for her service, or usefulness. 
They continued at Dunkirk, and by that means effectually 
marred the projects of the Duke of Parma, keeping a close 
watch, and preventing his coming forth as he intended ; so that, 
although they often wanted zeal and forwardness, yet on this 
occasion he reckoned they had done good service, by accom- 

1 Mr. John " Jhann " Stubbe to Lord Burghley, Middleburgh, August 14, 

1588. State Paper Office, Holland, vol. 56. ! 

E e 2 -i 

. t 



plishing the object of penning him up on shore, and preventing 
his rendering assistance to the armada'." 

Willoughby continued to exercise a watchful vigilance over 
the town of Bergen, whose danger, with that of Ostend, he had 
long foreseen, and for whose furnishing with means of defence he 
had never ceased to importune the English government, as well 
as for instructions for himself; " because," he writes to the 
Privy Council, " the enemy bendeth his forces, (as I always 
feared,) to besiege Berges, I doubt not but you will please to 
consider how impossible it will be to hold the same against so 
puissant an enemy, it being also much weakened since those 
musketeers and shot were taken thence for England. The opi- 
nion of such as thought it easy to put in men at all times and 
suddens, was answered by me, before this honourable gentleman, 
in the assembly of the States of Zealand ; and if we shall stay 
to expect for victuals, munition, or other means from them, (he 
can inform your Lordships,) it is but vain ; and to trust unto 
myself for supply, your Lordships know right well I want all 
things requisite. If you will please to view the chart thereof, 
and behold the sorts, it will appear most plain, that without 
great plenty of men they are not to be held ; for if they take 
the one, the other is lost also ; and to defend them and the town, 
requires at least three thousand men. I therefore beseech your 
Lordships most humbly to send your speedy directions, lest that 
whilst I have neither men, meat, nor money, wherewith to pre- 
serve the town, and unassured of her Majesty's pleasure and 
your Lordship's, the enemy should prevail, to the loss and hazard 



1 Willoughby to Sir F. Walsingham, August 19, 1588. State Paper 
Office, Holland, vol. 56. 



of many of her Majesty's brave men, which might do her very 
good service on other occasions \" 

Every day brought more certain intelhgence of the enemy's 
designs against the place ; and having despatched several per- 
sons to learn the truth as to their movements, two who returned 
(four of their company being taken) informed him, that the 
hostile army was encamped at Collempthout, about three Dutch 
miles from Berghen, which was their real and undoubted aim. 

In order to alarm the enemy's camp, Willoughby's company of 
horse, in number two hundred, went forth, he writes, and " drew 
near Waw Castle, lying by the wood-side there ; whereupon the 
enemy, presenting certain of the hargolieters, retired, purposing 
to have drawn them into an ambuscado, which our men had laid, 
but the enemy followed them not." However, three prisoners 
were taken, who confessed the intentions against Berghen. The 
arrival of some troops, both horse and foot, which were dis- 
covered marching along the sands from Antwerp, made it pru- 
dent to effect a retreat, particularly as the chief object, certain 
intelligence, was gained ^. 

The more apparent the danger of the town, of course the more 
imperative became the demand for supplies. The Queen ex- 
pected them to be furnished by the States, " to which," writes 
Willoughby, " I moved them earnestly, according as by your 
Lordships (of the Privy Council) I was directed." In reply 
they stated, that they had already forwarded some provisions, 
and, from time to time, would take care to send what might be 

1 Willoughby to the Council, August 19, 1588. State Paper Office, 
Holland. 

2 Willoughby to the Privy Council, Middleburgh, September 3, 1588. 
State Paper Office, Holland, vol. 57. 



needed. They were as intractable as usual ^ ; and, as Wil- 
loughby had before expressed an opinion, would probably in 
their blind jealousy of Elizabeth's power, have been well content 
if she had fulfilled her threat, and withdrawn her garrison, as 
she declared she would, in case they refused the requisite 



succours ^. 



The possession of this town of Bergen was greatly coveted by 
the Duke of Parma, partly on account of its strength, and partly 
from its commanding the province of Brabant, and being the key 
of a free passage into Zealand ^ ; and perhaps the most brilliant 
success which attended the British arms during this campaign, 
was gained by its defenders under the command of Willoughby. 
But not to anticipate events, the details of the siege shall be 
given in their place, and shall commence with the return of the 
Lord General, which took place on the 14th of September, 1588, 
when he found the enemy encamped entirely round the place, 
within cannot-shot. 

Almost immediately after, they approached still nearer, with 
horse and foot, and with the design of taking a place of some 
importance close to Steenbergen port. A sally on the part of 
the garrison was immediately commanded, which was followed 
by a long skirmish, the English horse charging the besiegers 
back to the camp. At length, according to the confession of the 
lieutenant-colonel of the regiment, late Barlaymont's, who was 
taken prisoner, they were forced to retreat to their colours, 

^ Willoughby to the Privy Council, Hague, September 10, 1588. State 
Paper Office, Holland, vol. 57. 

2 Willoughby to the Lords of the Council, Middleburgh, September 8, 
1588. State Paper Office, Holland. 

3 Camden, p. 420. 



SUCCESSFUL SALLY. 215 



leaving many slain or wounded, while the loss on the other side 
was very small. 

In the mean while the Duke of Parma was busily engaged 
reconnoitring the town and its position from the Antwerp side, 
and had a very narrow escape, two of his attendant pages being 
killed at his side by a shot from the wall ; and a marquis, who 
was attending him, having his horse slain under him \ This 
successful sally had the effect of stopping the attacks of the 
besiegers for that night. During the hours of darkness they 
attempted nothing further against the garrison, but were heard 
hewing timber ; and when morning dawned, adds the writer of 
the journal^ from whence this account is taken, "it was per- 
ceived they had cut down the justice^." 

On this day, (the 15th,) Lord Willoughby despatched a mes- 
senger to the States, complaining of the extreme destitution in 
which he had found the place, notwithstanding their promise to 
furnish and continue supplies ; even the few men they had sent 
were ready to mutiny from want ; and no means remained for 
redeeming prisoners, assisting the sick, repairing or re-inforcing 
companies. Finding, however, that no help was to be looked 
for from them, Willoughby forwarded pressing " advertisements" 
to England, entreating to be allowed to draw forces from the 
cautionary towns, and to have a fresh supply of two or three 
thousand men, to be always in readiness for the relief of the 



^ This account was gathered from a Scotch lieutenant, who gave himself 
up to the English. 

2 Journal of the siege of Bergen op Zoom, forwarded to Lord Burghley, 
September, 1588. State Paper Office, Holland, vol. 57. 

^ " Justice," a gallows planted outside a spot in the jurisdiction of a 
" Seigneur de haute et basse justice" — " Lord of the gibbet and knife." 



216 



PROCLAMATION. 



place, and to weary out the army of the King of Spain, and so 
''break the neck of his designs." A provision of victuals and 
powder was also earnestly requested, to be kept as a kind of 
reserve in case of necessity, and guarded by ships of war, in a 
vessel appointed for the purpose \ On the 15th, also, a second 
skirmish took place after another sally, but very little was done 
on either side. The General was anxious that the burghers 
should assist in the necessary work on the fortifications, but 
found them very unwilling to comply. 

The following day, some powder, lead, and other articles were 
received at Bergen, from the States of Zealand ; and, at the 
Lord General's own charge ^ a provision of cheese and oats was 
also brought in. A proclamation was made containing several 
necessary commands : no soldier, on pain of strappado, was to 
walk about the walls, or in the town, without his arms ; no 
soldier should depart from his quarter, save by license from his 
officer, on pain of death ; nor any sergeants from their guard : 
also it was ordered, that the cavalry should watch in the night ; 
and that the day following, two gentlemen of the number should 
be appointed to go the round every hour, and commit any that 
might be found disordered on their guard ^. 

On this same day, a person of the name of Edward Flud, 
formerly of the Lord General's troop, and who, " on the death of 
another^," had, to save his life, fled to the enemy, and there 
served under the traitor Stanley, returned to Bergen, and in- 



1 Advertisements sent to Lord Burghley. State Paper Office, Holland, 
vol. 57. 

2 " As by the list appeareth." 

^ Journal above quoted. State Paper Office. 
* Probably by his hand. 



PREPARATIONS FOR DEFENCE. 217 

formed the besieged of the enemy's strength, and explained the 
cause why all that afternoon they stood to arms ; namely, that 
an English deserter had told them that Willoughby meditated 
another sally. 

Provoked at the refusal of the burghers to exert themselves, 
the General at length told them they should be forced to do so. 
For their security his men were hazarding their lives, and he 
would not submit to see them looking idly on ; by which remon- 
strance, after some difficulty, they were driven to obey him. 

An arrangement was made for the better ordering of the 
defence, (and agreed to, apparently without any dissentient 
opinion,) that the town should be divided into three quarters : 
the one from Steenbergen Port to the Water Port, to be espe- 
cially under the command of the Lord General ; from thence to 
Waw Port, under the Sergeant-Major General ; and the third, 
from Waw Port to Steenbergen Port, under the Governor. To 
each quarter were appointed certain companies of soldiers, and a 
number of burghers to work. In the Lord General's quarter, 
outside La Garde's ravelin, " was wrought a strada coperta, with 
a traversing line flanking the Mount, the North Fort, and the 
Haven ; and in the Sergeant-Major's a fosse bray \ to prevent 
the mines ^." 

On the 17th, Lord Willoughby succeeded better than before in 
causing the burghers to work : he was himself no idle looker-on, 
but was all day on the walls, giving and enforcing commands ; 
and in the evening was visited in his fortifications by Count 
Solmes and Marshal Villiers, who, having inspected and ap- 
proved of them, remained till next day. Little was done by the 

^ Fauss-braye, a counter breast-work. 

2 Journal of the siege «f Bergen. State Paper Office, vol. 57. 

F f 



218 



WILLOUGHBY S DETERMINATION 



enemy, and no attack made ; but they might be seen from the 
town, carrying wood and fagots, for the purpose, it was guessed, 
of constructing a bridge from one of their camps to the other. 
This day a drum of Sir William Stanley's arrived at Bergen, and 
delivered himself up. 

The morning of the 18th of September broke unpropitiously 
on Willoughby. Sir Thomas Morgan, so long the cause of dis- 
agreement between him and the Queen, arrived at Bergen, with 
commission from the States to assume the government. At such 
a juncture, and in the midst of his labours, it must have been 
most especially mortifying to have him placed so near him ; and 
with many characters, a jealous spirit might have been excited 
and fostered, to the ruin of the common cause. Willoughby, 
however, received him with courtesy, and immediately delivered 
him the keys of the town, offering him that degree of command 
which his commission, or the Queen's letters to the States, the 
Lord General, or to Morgan himself, implied. This concession 
Morgan refused to accept, replying he would have all power, or 
none ; and if his authority to command all her Majesty's forces 
were not granted, he would have it published to all the captains, 
and constitute them his judges. 

To this extravagant demand, Lord Willoughby replied, that 
he might have yielded much to the Governor, had his bearing 
been considerate and kind towards himself; but that without the 
express direction of her Majesty, or the Lords of the Council, no 
such peremptory orders should induce him to divest himself of 
the authority he held as General. 

Count Solmes and Marshal Villiers, who had not yet departed, 
here interfered, and by their persuasions Sir Thomas Morgan 
was induced, a few hours after, to accept the government, as it 



HIS TENDER ACCEPTED. 219 



was tendered to him ; and immediately on his consenting to do 
so, Willoughby seems to have done his best to assist him, by his 
greater experience, in his arduous duties. He desired him to 
prevent the destruction of houses by the soldiers, and carefully 
to preserve the timbers of such as had already been pulled down ; 
also not to relax in the useful labour of insisting on the co- 
operation of the burghers. He was also very desirous, in which 
wish he was joined by Count Solmes and Marshal Villiers, that a 
boat should be despatched to Tertolle, to learn, if possible, the 
enemy's intentions ; but this was not accomplished. 

A rumour was spread that the besiegers were come down 
toward Tertolle, and had taten up a position on a bank there, 
near the North Fort. Lord Willoughby proposed to Count 
Solmes and Marshal Villiers, that they should attack them there 
on the Tertolle side, while the English should do the same from 
Bergen, at any moment they might require. 

On the 19th, the captains met in council, and it was resolved, 
that the Governor should give orders for quartering on the town ; 
that seven companies, selected by the drawing of lots, should go 
to the forts, and all the rest remain ; and that " every captain 
who should fortune to go to the forts, should have seven 
lodgings reserved in the town for hurt and sick men." Besides 
these, many resolutions were drawn up ; as, for the quartering of 
the walls, the advancements of the works already begun, the 
rearing of several blinds or protections in spots exposed to dan- 
ger, so as to cover the sallies and drawbridges, and the casting of 
a mine, &c.^ 

^ Journal of the siege of Bergen. State Paper Office. — " A note of works 
and fortifications to be presently advanced, delivered to the Governor : 
" To further and advance the works already begun. To make two blinds, 

F f 2 



220 



WILLOUGHBY S PRECAUTIONS. 



The next day, the Lord General, fearing that his soldiers should 
become inexpert from want of practice, or should be con- 
fused in a moment of danger, being strange to their com- 
manders, thought fit to draw forth some squadrons of horse 
and foot, not so much for the purpose of fighting, as to render 
them orderly, and prepared for combat. This practice, how- 
ever, led to a real skirmish ; for the enemy came upon them, 
and after a long encounter, the artillery playing on them from 
the walls, many of the Spaniards were slain and taken prisoners, 
amongst whom was said to be a cornet of Count Nicholo's com- 
pany of cavalry. 

On his return, finding much want of discipline, and great dis- 
obedience of orders, in the particular of the soldiers leaving their 
quarters, and walking unarmed, Willoughby strongly advised the 
new governor to repeat the proclamation, and (what was perhaps 
more important) to punish the breach of its orders. 

On the night of the 20th, the enemy approached and en- 
trenched themselves within " caliver shot ,of Waw Port;" and 
Willoughby proposed to the Governor, to send out a detachment 
to stop their works ; but at the moment a report, which proved 



the one within Waw Port, the other without, for defences, and to cover the 
drawbridges, as also the sally at the end of the traverse ; without, to make 
a strada coperta. 

" To cast a mine through the rampire against the heronry, upon the 
height of the foot of the gallery there intended. To make a blind to defend 
the beating of the heronry hill. To rear another blind upon the corner of 
the rampii'e next to the water-mill. To keep the curtain leading to the 
Water Port from flanking. To make a blind to cover the sally at Waw 
Port, upon the right hand coming forth. To trench down into Sir William 
Drury's mount, to lead the men covert into the same, as also to cover and 
guard them there." 



groundless, of the drawing of the hostile forces round the town, 
being brought in by Captain Bannester, the General's plan was 
not followed ; a matter of regret to him, as had it been imme- 
diately prosecuted, their nocturnal labours might have been de- 
stroyed in a couple of hours ; and to have renewed them, they 
would have required at least two or three hundred men, with 
seven or eight hundred more to guard them while working, — an 
immense drain on their strength and powers \ 

The journal of this famous siege is broken off at this period ; 
and for further information we must now refer to Willoughby's 
letter to Lord Burghley, which bears date the 20th of September, 
but in which he speaks much more of others' achievements than 
of his own, and warmly eulogises the gallant conduct and "par- 
ticular valour of Sir William Drury, who brake his lance very 
valiantly in the front of the enemy, which in my judgment de- 
serves the greater credit, that, with all humility, he obeyed her 
highness' command, and yet served her more forwardly than 
those that received the sweet ;'^ and undoubtedly he well de- 
served commendation, who, but two days before, had seen his 
governorship in this very place given to another, yet was still 
foremost in the rank of its defenders. The Lord General, in the 
same letter, notices the brave actions of his "cousin Vere," of 
Baskervyle, and Parker, captains of horse and foot; "and 
amongst all others," he adds, "I should speak of that noble 
gentleman, Mr. Wylford, who is lightly shot in the leg, but that 
the worth of the gentleman, and his conduct, (which I am sure is 
so well known, or else more uneven is his fortune,) is such, as 



^ Journal of the siege of Bergen op Zoom, from the 14th to the 20th of 
September, State Paper Office. 



that I may well spare his commendation." He goes on to men- 
tion his own expenses during the siege : but that " since another 
hath now the charge, or at least vaunteth to have the charge of 
all her Majesty's forces here, I could be very willing to quit all 
to the exjperienced wisdom and value of Sir Thomas Morgan ; 
but if his wit, cunniny, and diligence can find the means to lose 
this place, I shall be very sorry ; for the consequence of the evil 
may fall out to our nation. For my own part, it sufficeth me 
that I may truly praise God, in his blessing me twice to fight 
with the enemy's greatest forces, and to return, though not a 
conqueror, yet not a loser. And for all his soldiership, and mine 
also, (which, considering his discretion and my practice, comes much 
to a reckoning,) yet I pray God send her Majesty in a need 
better than the best of us both, for else it went hard." ..." But 
good my Lord, if ever Morgan, though he command the town, 
(a charge distinct by itself, as by precedent between Sir Roger 
Williams and Balfour I can well approve,) should meddle with 
my regiment of her Majesty's English forces, then I humbly 
beseech your Lordship, if you will ever do me favour or bind 
me to you, call me home ; for I would not take her Majesty's 
pay unworthily, nor lose my reputation, which hitherto with 
charge and hazard I have gained, in such a slender valuation or 
esteem thereof. If I were not already persuaded of your Lord- 
ship's honourable care of me, I would then urge your Lordship 
with more prayers for this, than I would for three parts of my 
land, if it lay on it'." 

Willoughby's next communication to Burghley is dated Octo- 
ber 8, 1588, and enters into details of the means he had used for 

' Lord Willoughby to Lord Burghley; "Berghes besieged," September 
20, 1588. State Paper Office, Holland, vol. 57. 



TO BURGHLEY. 223 



re-inforcing the garrison from Ostend, Brill, and Flushing, with 
those men who "went for England," and had returned, and also 
with a hundred which he drew thither on his own credit from 
Gertrudenburgh, — in all, six hundred. This force, however, he 
still found insufficient " to watch and ward against so royal a 
camp as we have before us, consisting (I dare assure your Lord- 
ship) of twenty-four thousand footmen at the least. The circuit 
of the town is very near two English miles ; and I dare avow it, 
(however the envious or ambitious may cavil contrary,) as weakly 
fortified as any town of these Low Countries, unless by late dili- 
gence of our soldiers re-inforced. The other grounds dangerous 
for us, together with two forts, wherein very strong guard must 
be kept, are twice as much as the town. For the ground by the 
water-side, which your Lordship speaks of, what hath or was 
done to it before the receiving of your letters, shall appear by 
the plot ; and I would I were so happy but for two or three 
hours to have so honourable a judge of what hath been done as 
yourself. Likewise for victuals and other provisions, I will not 
vaunt unto your Lordship, that what with my credit and my 
purse, I am engaged very near £2000, but Leave it to the proof 
which cannot fail. Having gone so far, I thought not to leave 
there ; but considering the consequence of the war to light in 
England, I never left soliciting the States and the Count Mau- 
rice, till I had engaged him first to affront the enemy in Tertolle, 
and so hither God having, I thank Him, so succeeded me, as I 
have not only kept the haven clear, but so assured the same, as 
if great want be not in the defenders of it, it can very hardly be 
lost, but held so open as we may carry in and out more than we 
shall haply get. Now, my Lord, whether my presence were 
requisite to these, let the consequence allow or disprove ; whe- 



224 



NORREY S ARRIVAL. 



ther it may be approved by example, I refer me to Monsieur 
Lautree, that saved in such sort Bayonne from the Spanish 
enemy ; to D'Andelot, that defended Orleans ; to the Duke of 
Anjou, who was in Ghent ; to my Lord of Warwick, and many 
others, too tedious to be recited to your Lordship : yet I cannot 
but confess, that it is a great happiness to me to be so respected 
by a gracious sovereign, and cared for by an honourable friend, 
as that I am commanded out of it. Nevertheless, good my 
Lord, respect my poor reputation so much, as that I may not 
altogether beat the bush, and another have the birds ; to be 
posted to sit in a council of state here, where there is no autho- 
rity, and all contracts broken ; from whom all the solicitors 
shall hardly obtain any thing of good, and with whom all your 
cunningest civilians shall have enough ado to argue withal. But 
if it be so, I beseech your Lordship I may be honourably re- 
voked ; for I know of how gallant a humour that worthy gentle- 
man (Mr. Norris ^) is of, and, as I am sure, would not be under 
my command, as a thing very unfitting so brave a man ; so on 
the other side, (as a matter ceremoniously held amongst all men 
of war,) it will be very hard for me to be brought lower under 
another ^ as mean as myself, holding the place I do. Yet as I 
am no way so insolent to take any conceit of commandment over 
his person, so can I not amoinder the Queen's former letters 
patent, as not to think but all the chiefs and soldiers should be 
under me ; which if it be so, I beseech your Lordship I may in 
that behalf have confirmation of ray absolute authority over 



1 Norris was then employed to deal as Ambassador to the States, as 
appears from a draft of his instructions, dated October 6th, now in the 
State Paper Office. 

- Meaning Morgan. 



NORREYS'S ARRIVAL. 225 



them, or else liberty to live like a private man, for that body is 
monstrous that hath two heads \" . . . . 

The announcement of Norreys's arrival is thus given by the 
Queen : 

"^Good Peregrine, suppose not that your travail and labours 
are not gratuitously accepted, and shall be ever kept in good 
memorye. 

" Elizabeth R. 

"Right trusty and well-beloved, we greet you well. Whereas 
we have presently sent thither as ambassador to the States, our 
trusty and well-beloved servant, Sir John Norris, Knight, for 
some special service which we have committed to him, w^herein 
he is to deal with the said States for matters that do greatly 

import and concern their ^-ful benefit and well-doing, w^here- 

with you shall be made acquainted by the said Sir John Norris ; 
We have thought good to advertise you hereof, to the end that 
you shall give him your best assistance any ways that you can, 
and wherein he shall require the same, both towards the States 
General, and particular of the Provinces, to the furtherance of 
this service and charge, which we have thus committed unto 
him. We have also appointed him to confer with you upon some 

other matters and means concerning the States and of 

the town of Berghen, wherein as you have answered our expecta- 
tions to our great contentment, by the care and travail which we 
understand you have already taken ; so now assure yourself that 
you will no less persist hereafter, wishing you nevertheless not 
to expose yourself too much to hazard, considering the place you 

* Lord Willoughby to Lord Burgliley, Berghen, October 8, 1588, State 

Paper Office, Holland, vol. 58. 

2 This heading was in the Queen's own hand. 

Gg 



226 STRATAGEM. 



hold. For the compounding also of the differences and dissen- 
sions at Gertrudenburgh and Utrecht, or any other places, we 
require you to give your best advice and means, that may further 
the speedy redress of the same, upon such conference as shall be 
between you and the said Sir John Norris. 

" Given vmder our signet, at our mansion of St. James', the 
9th day of October, 1588, in the thirtieth year of our reign \' 



1 »' 



Notwithstanding, however, the internal dissensions at Bergen, 
the Lord General showed he had capacity to command, as well 
as courage to execute ; and, whatever were their private feuds, 
its defenders manfully united against the powerful enemy lying 
at the gates. 

One very remarkable circumstance marks the conduct of this 
siege : an attempt on the part of the enemy to obtain an advan- 
tage through the treachery (as they supposed) of the besieged ; 
while the latter, feigning to listen to their overtures, turned their 
plot against themselves, and caught them in their own snare. If 
art must be met by art, and stratagem must cope with stratagem, 
the Spaniards only reaped the just reward of tampering with a 
fidelity which was proof against their bribes, although to obtain 
an advantage by a counterplot must have been a novel step in the 
usual straightforward course of Willoughby's dealings. 

It seems that there were two forts between the town and the 
river, one of which the Duke of Parma was most anxious to 
become possessed of, and into which De Vere had thrown him- 
self. In one of the numerous skirmishes that occurred, two 

^ Letter addressed " To our right trusty and well-beloved, the Lord Wil- 
loughby, Lieutenant- General of our war in the Low Countries." From a 
copy taken by the Hon. C. Bertie Percy, of the original at Grimsthorpe. 



COUNTER-STRATAGEM. 227 



Spanish officers had been made prisoners ; and being lodged in 
the house of a burgher, made overtures to him, and to an Eng- 
lishman, to betray the fort into the hands of their leader, on 
whose part they offered very large bribes ; and the listeners 
affecting to be moved, but having in fact communicated with 
the higher powers, suffered the prisoners to escape, and shortly 
followed them into the presence of the Duke himself. In return 
for his liberal gifts and promises, they agreed to admit one of his 
divisions within the gates that very night. The new allies were 
then fettered, and each placed under the charge of two troopers, 
with orders, in case of treachery, to put them instantly to death. 
A column followed of three thousand soldiers, of whom a consi- 
derable proportion were officers, the leading files of which passed 
the opened gates and lowered the drawbridge without hesitation 
or doubt. "But when," says Vere's historian, "about five hun- 
dred only were across the ditch, the silence which had hitherto 
prevailed was suddenly broken. A gun from one of the bastions 
was fired ; instantly the drawbridge swung aloft, and the gates 
closing with a loud crash, the head was completely cut off from 
the rear of the column. The utter destruction of those caught 
in the snare was the work almost of a moment. Strongly re- 
inforced from the body of the place, De Vere stood ready to 
receive them ; and attacking them while yet bewildered by the 
consciousness that they were betrayed, he cut them to pieces 
without loss to himself. In the mean while, the party without 
the walls were assailed by a murderous fire of large and small 
shot. Unable to retreat without a continued exposure to the 
same rough handling, they turned furiously upon their tormentors, 
and crossing the ditch, then empty of water, tore down the palli- 
sades, and made desperate efforts to mount the wall. Multitudes 

Gg2 



perished in the attempt ; others gained the parapet only to fall 
by the hands of the defenders ; and the returning tide swept 
away a still greater number, while struggling in the mud. In a 
word, the project by which the Duke of Parma had hoped to 
make himself master of the redoubt, not only failed, but failed 
under circumstances so disastrous, that a panic seized his whole 
army ; the siege was in consequence raised, and ' the conqueror 
in a thousand fields ' precipitately retreated. The eminent ser- 
vices of De Vere on this occasion were frankly acknowledged, 
and promptly rewarded, by Lord Willoughby ; he was honoured 
with distinction, and began from that time forth to exercise a 
marked influence over the general conduct of the war '." 

The Lord General avouches his share in this action in a letter 
to the Privy Council, dated October 12. After informing them 
of the manner in which he had disposed the "men from Ostend 
under the commandment of Lambert and Brackenburg ;" also, 
that "for Flushing men, he had obtained those of my Lord 
Governor ^ that were in England ; for the Brill, that his Lord- 
ship ^ sent them without any difficulty ; and that Gertruden- 
burgh, upon the trust they reposed in him, sent one hundred 
musketeers," he adds : " the States, by my continual solicitation 
and travail, have put in some companies, (though weak,) and 
some provision of victuals ; but if I should say truly, they send 
as much to the enemy as to us *, as may appear by a copy of 



^ Gleig's Memoir of Sir Francis Vere, published in Lardner's Cabinet 
Cyclopaedia, p. 131. 

2 Sir William Russell. ^ Lord Burgh. 

^ This conduct on the part of the States was repeated more than once ; 
and was more than once the cause of remonstrance from the English 
government. 



SUCCESS. 229 



letters sent to me, condemning those that do prevent their bad 
dealing, without which, I can assure your Lordships, the enemy's 
camp cannot well live. And as by my last I advertised your 
Lordships of some practice held by the enemy, which this bearer, 
Mr. Grimstone, by my appointment entertained, how worthily 
and with what resolution he hath performed it, the discourse 
sent herewith will deliver you, And albeit I have no means to 
reward him as he deserveth, yet for encouragement sake I have 
strained myself somewhat of mine own, and have further pro- 
mised him the place of a captain, and leave the rest to your 
Lordships' good consideration." 

Sir William Russell's letter to Sir Francis Walsingham gives 
a concise but clear account of the success of the stratagem, and 
runs thus : " Sir, in my last I advertised your honour of my 
going to Berghen ; and now since my coming hither, by the 
care and policy of the Lord General, and through the practices of 
one Mr. Grimstone, (by assuring the enemy a post in one of the 
forts on his watch-night, and by promising the assistance of his 
whole squadron for their entry,) there hath been slain upon their 
approach, about the number of five hundred men, four captains, 
and five others of good account then also taken \" 

It appears that on this occasion articles of agreement were 
signed between the Duke of Parma and Grimston, promising the 
latter the reward of seven thousand crowns of gold, three florins 
to the crown, in case of his rendering to the said Alexander 
Farnese, Duke of Parma and Placentia, the fort commonly called 
the New Sconce, at the head of Bergen op Zoom, on the 9th of 

1 Sir William Russell to Sir F. Walsingham, Berghen, October 12, 1588. 
State Paper Office, Holland, vol, 58. 



October, 1588 ; and to Robert Redhead, mediator in this mat- 
ter, a gift of twelve hundred crowns \ 

Willoughby's letter of the 12th of October closes with a 
description of the ill-treatment which the English received at 
the hands of the Spaniards ; and of the latter having at their 
arrival taken Halter Castle, a place of very "small importance, 
lying with their camp, examining if any Englishman were 
amongst them, and for that purpose enforcing them to swear." 
And finding, amongst the rest, one who in their opinion resem- 
bled an Englishman, they offered to entreat him with violence, 
protesting not to hold any quarter with the English ; " whereof," 
continues Willoughby, " I thought good to advertise your Lord- 
ships, that you may likewise proceed with theirs as to your 
good wisdoms shall seem best^." 

Towards the close of the month of October, the English 
seemed in a fair way of ridding themselves of the hitherto 
formidable enemy who had so long been making efforts to reduce 
them. Weakened by the valiant defence, failing from want of 
provisions, and dreading the now fast-approaching winter, they 
began to show signs of being wearied of their favourite project of 
becoming masters of Bergen. 

On the 20th of October, the Lord Willoughby, himself thrown 
upon a bed of sickness, reported of the good success of the Eng- 
lish arms ; and on the 25th he was at Middleburgh, though but 
for a short time, and on the eve of returning to Berghes. He 
mentions the arrival of the Queen's ambassador, (Sir John Nor- 

^ Articles in the State Paper Office, signed by the Duke of Parma. Hol- 
land, vol. 58. 

2 Lord Willoughby to the Privy Council, Berghen, October 12, 1588. 
State Paper Office, Holland, vol. 58. 



reys,) who had, on the 24th, begun, according to his charge, 
to negotiate with the Count, and such of the State and Coun- 
cil as were there. "I came here," he adds, "as well to re- 
ceive his advice, as to do him the best offices I could. But 
he is so well acquainted, and so sufficient to debate in this 
cause, as my counsels are but drops in the sea." Norreys 
had been sent to Holland, to solicit aid in a voyage proposed 
against Portugal. 

On the 28th, Willoughby informs Lord Burghley, that the 
enemy had abandoned or "risen out of the north side of their 
camp, from the quarter of Tertolle ; also that he and Count 
Maurice together visited -the deserted encampment, brought in 
all their gabeons and planks for artillery, caused their cabins to 
be burned in their sight, and utterly defaced that quarter. And 
so far as by all likelihood we can gather, it is thought they will 
levy their siege thence." ....** The companies now sent over," 
he continues, "are altogether unprovided with arms, except a 
few muskets and collivers, and some pikes without corslets, and, 
most miserable, without any means to sustain them, neither any 
direction given for their relief \" Fortunately, this long-con- 
tested siege was drawing to a close ; and, shortly after, the Duke 
of Parma, giving up all hopes of blocking up the haven and 
carrying the town, was compelled to abandon the enterprise, and 
retire with his army from the place, of which Willoughby re- 
mained in undisputed possession. Amongst those who chiefly 
distinguished themselves during the continuance of the siege, 
were Francis Vere, Thomas Knolles, Nicholas Parker, and John 



^ Lord Willoughby to the Privy Council, Berghen, October 28, 1588. 
State Paper Office, Hollaud, vol. 58. 




Pooly, who all received the honour of knighthood from the hands 
of the General \ 

The 3rd of November may be considered as closing this period 
of Willoughby's history, as on that day he writes from Berges, 
that "God be praised, the town is quieted of the siege;" and 
adds an earnest entreaty to be now allowed to come home, were 
it but for a fortnight, to see the Queen, and put order to his 
poor estate ^. 

This successful defence of an important place is a con- 
spicuous point in Willoughby's military career in the Low Coun- 
tries, and the States did him the justice to acknowledge his 
usefulness, and especially the good effects of his mediation be- 
tween the contending parties ^ ; so that his talent for peace- 
making, joined to his military accomplishments, make him 
worthy of the device with which we have headed the opening of 
his campaign in Holland — the unsheathed sword, hallowed by 
the promised olive-branch of peace. 

One sore, however, still galled him, not for himself only, 
though he owns he had " suffered in credit " by its infliction, 
but chiefly from the undeserved pain it had caused to one who 
had most "painfully" served the Queen, the deposed Sir William 
Drury. His letter to Lord Burghley is almost touching, and 
one feels for the compromise of Drury's honour, who, by Eliza- 
beth's own hand, had been deprived of the government bestowed 
by his General, with full confidence in his merit and capacity. 
He prays that Sir John Conway's government (which he was 



^ Camden's Elizabeth, p. 420. 

2 Lord Willoughby's letter of the 3rd of November, 1588. State Paper 
Office. 

^ Document in the State Paper Office. 



upon the eve of resigning) might be bestowed upon him, for the 
consolation and healing of his wounded heart, and lest her 
Majesty's faithful subjects should for the future be discouraged 
in her service *. 

Willoughby's desire to return to England was known at least 
to Sir John Norreys, who mentions it to Sir Francis Walsingham, 
in a letter dated the 10th of November : " If it be true," he says, 
speaking of the General, " that he hath asked leave to come 
over to see her Majesty, for one month or two, as he himself 
told me, I wish it might be permitted at this time, and the 
charge left to Mr. Wilford till his return, whom I am sure I 
should find more tractable, and better understanding what course 
is to be held in these matters." " These matters" were the 
furtherance of his expedition to Portugal, then in agitation, and 
to which it seems he fancied Lord Willoughby was opposed ; 
and that when it should come to the point of asking his assist- 
ance for quartering, removing, and altering of companies, he 
should find him averse to the plan altogether, and ill-affected 
towards advancing it. So strong was this impression on his 
mind, that he thought fit to " despatch Sir Roger Williams to the 
secretary Walsingham, to inform him of the case, and of the 
reluctance, real or supposed, of the General, and the obstacles 
which, according to him, he heaped upon the enterprise^." 

The return to England, however, was not immediate. On the 
12th of December, Willoughby was marching into Guelderland, 
with a thousand foot and five hundred horse, to join with the 

^ Lord Willoughby to Lord Burgliley, November 5, 1588. State Paper 
Office, Holland. 

2 Sir J. Norreys to Sir F. Walsingham, Hague, November 10, 1588. State 
Paper Office, Holland, vol. 59. 

H h 



forces of the States, for the relief of Wackekendon, besieged by 
Count Mansfield \ 

On the 13th he writes biniself from Dort, urging a request to 
return home, even if it were for a few hours only, from himself, 
Mr. Killigrew, Sir Thomas Wilford, and Mr. Gilpin, and speak- 
ing as if they had to answer objections, and to be heard in their 
defence. His sum of a soldier's duty is fine : he had learnt, he 
says, from one, that we ought " to advertise of inconveniences 
and impossibilities, but princes' pleasures being enjoined us, 
though it were now certain loss of our lives, it is our duty to 
undertake it^" 

The States yielded to the Lord Ambassador's demands, and 
granted him two thousand foot and six companies of horse, of 
her Majesty's succours to them, for his voyage into Portugal; 
thirteen companies to be left in Holland, for Berghen and the 
forts ; seven for Ostend ; four for Brill, and the fort ; seven for 
Flushing and Ramilies ; and all the rest of the foot were to be 
despatched to Portugal, " which, however, would not reach to 
the number accorded." At the same time they required one 
thousand foot and four hundred horse to march with theirs, for 
the relief of Wachtendouch, although they would neither appoint 
garrisons for them on their return, or provide for their neces- 
sities at their going forth. " Neither," continues Willoughby, 
" can they be drawn from any place without great danger ; and 
yet if we should not do what they appoint, they take occasion to 
blame her Majesty for breaking the contract, and give out to the 

1 Sir Edmund Uvedale to Sir F. Walsingham, Dort, December 12, 1588. 
State Paper Office, Holland, vol. 60. 

2 Lord Willoughby to Lord Burghley, Dort, December 13, 1588. State 
Paper Office, Holland, vol. 60. 



people, that we stand them in no stead, but consume the country." 
Round Bergen, the enemy still watched their opportunities to 
seize any advantage they could obtain. At Ostend, the sea had 
rushed in, and caused such breaches, that it was untenable with- 
out a very large force. As to the cautionary towns, they were 
so weakened, that it lay in the power of the States at any 
moment to possess themselves of them, and more particularly of 
Flushing, where they had been for some time secretly attempting 
to set a footing. 

Willoughby could not but see the dangerous condition of these 
places if their strength should be diminished ; and on that ac- 
count, it seems, and not that he was averse to the Portuguese 
expedition, he regretted their incautious desertion. Indeed, his 
advice ends in this : he recommends to the Privy Council, that 
the cautionary towns should be reinforced by her Majesty, and 
the rest of her forces withdrawn, that she may dispose of them at 
her pleasure, " rather than to have them thus dispersed, as in a 
land of bondage, when they were so badly entreated ^" 

Before the forces set out for Wachtendouch, that town sur- 
rendered by composition to the enemy ^. Meanwhile Elizabeth 
had directed Lord Willoughby to solicit the States to allow of 
the recal of some of her own troops, in order to aid the expe- 
dition under Norreys and Drake. It is evident that she had not 
adopted Sir John Norreys' opinion of his backwardness in assist- 
ing her design ; for, in the same letter which contains these orders, 
she thus expresses her satisfaction at his efforts : " After thus 

^ Lord Willoughby to the Privy Council, Dort, December 15, 1588. State 
Paper Office, Holland, vol. 60. 

2 Willoughby's letter from the Hague, December 20, 1588. State Paper 

Office, HoUand, vol. 60. 

H h 2 



much written, we could not but add our gracious acceptation of 
your care and diligence, which we well understand you have 
showed in furtherance of this service, with our thanks for the 
same ; which being here placed, though they may make these 
our letters seem to be somewhat disorderly written, as setting the 
cart before the horse, yet proceeding from our thanlcful accepting 
of your most dutiful endeavours, in the charge committed to you, 
cannot, we assure ourselves, be but most welcome unto you \" 

Our next news of Lord Willoughby is gathered from a letter 
of his to Sir F. Walsingham, dated Middleburgh, December 30th, 
in which he gratefully acknowledges the favours and kindness he 
had shown towards his children, assuring him of his readiness to 
serve, or do him honour, in any possible manner. The rest 
alludes to some letters intercepted and forwarded to the Secre- 
tary, one of which was Count Charles Mansfield's, couched in 
cypher, and others taken from the enemy by those of Ger- 
trudenburgh, and sent to England by Willoughby ^. On the 2nd 
of January, 1588-9, he deputed Sir Thomas Wilford to England, 
to carry information to Lord Burghley of the humour and con- 
dition of the Provinces, and other matters concerning the late 
campaign ^ ; and on the 10th of January he received the Queen's 
permission to return to England in these words : 



^ Extract of a letter from the Queen to Lord Willoughby, December 22, 
1588. State Paper Office, Holland, vol. 60. 

2 Lord Willoughby to Sir F. Walsingham, State Paper Office, Holland, 
vol. 60. He alludes also to some prisoners, Mendoza and OrteU, for whom 
Walsingham had written to Sir W. Russell ; a matter, he says, pertaining to 
his office, but in which he was willing to do him pleasure, especially as the 
affair was so honourable a one. 

2 Lord Willoughby to Lord Burghley, Middleburgh, January 2, 1588-9. 
State Paper Office, Holland, vol. 61. 



" Right trusty and well-beloved, we greet you well. Having 
been often and earnestly solicited on your behalf, to license you 
to repair over into this realm, as well for the ordering of cer- 
tain your own private affairs requiring your presence, as also for 
the great desire you have to see us after your so long absence, 
we have been pleased, now that it seemeth the state of our 
affairs there may in some sort spare your presence for some 
short time, to yield unto your said request ; and do by these our 
letters signify unto you, that we can be content, that taking such 
order in your charge there before your coming away, as that no 
disorder may ensue by your absence, and leaving such direction, 
as well among the chief officers as the private captains, that they 
shall continue the execution of their charges with no less care 
and respect than if you were present among them, you may 
afterwards use the benefit of this our license for your repair 
over. And to the end the States may not take any jealous con- 
ceit of your absence, or interpret the same otherwise than it is 
meant, we have thought good by our letters to signify unto them 
the causes of your coming away ; and that we do mean, whenso- 
ever any occasion shall fall out that may require your presence 
there, to return you thither with all convenient speed \" 

This graciously-worded permission could not, of course, have 
reached Willoughby, when (two days after) he wrote from the 
Hague to the Privy Council, inclosing an account of the answer 
he had received from the States General to the Queen's former 
letters of the 23rd of December ; also a detail of his proceedings 
for hastening the voyage which he had been accused of delaying. 



1 Extract of a letter from Queen Elizabeth to Lord Willoughby, January 
10, 1588-9. State Paper Office, Holland, vol. 61. 



238 DIFFICULT POSITIOIST. 



Mr. Killigrew and Mr. Bodley appear to have been his council 
on the occasion, and he expresses a hope that he may not be 
blamed if things do not turn out well, seeing that he was not 
made privy to the agreement between the States and Sir John 
Norreys. He also begs their Lordships, that in calling away of 
these companies, it may please them in direct terms to discharge 
him, as the governors of the cautionary places stand upon for 
theirs ; and " mine," he adds, " importuning me much more, 
having special charge of all such places where her Majesty's 
forces and honour are engaged, and they but in their private 
governments \" The cautionary towns had been especially con- 
fided to his care, both by the Queen and States ; and as the 
Governors would now be released from their duties as such, so 
he prayed he might be from his superior office of General. His 
difficulties, however, still continued to grow ; and on the 14th he 
again relieved himself by pouring out his complaints to Lord 
Burghley. His awkward situation is best described in his own 
words : on the one hand, the Queen requiring him to expedite 
the withdrawal of the forces for Portugal; on the other, the 
States resenting his obedience to this command ; with his own 
conviction, that a powerful enemy was ready to take advantage 
of the weakened condition that the towns would soon be in. 
"If," he writes, " I should write plainly unto your Lordship the 
difficulties I find myself in, abiding here to do the best endea- 
vours I can, I should in writing hardly observe the decorum is 
fit. What the Queen's Majesty hath commanded me touching 
these matters of Portugal and Ostend, I doubt not but your 
Lordship is acquainted ; what the States have answered me, 

1 Lord Willoughby to the Privy Council, Hague, January 12, 1588-9. 



REMONSTRANCE. 239 



your Lordship shall perceive by this I send with these. How 
unable I am to agree with them, this honourable gentleman, Mr. 
Killigrew, can report, as a witness whom I have consulted with ; 
what danger I am in, not only of losing that honour and poor 
reputation I served for, but all my own, I leave to your Lord- 
ship's judgment. For, my Lord, I assure your Lordship, I was 
never made acquainted with any acts of the Portugal voyage, till 
now by her Majesty and them, where I must construe at the 
first sight, and say by rote what I had never leisure once to 
think on. I beseech your Lordship, therefore, I may find ray- 
self so much in your Lordship's good grace, as I may have 
means procured to come home. The men may be delivered by 
the States and her Majesty's Governors of the towns whence 
they must be taken, without me. Sir Ed. Norreys hath pro- 
vided to receive them, and I beseech your Lordship I may not 
be a commissary to post men from one to another. I wish well 
to the journey, but I assure your Lordship I have no skill in 
these causes. As for the towns, how they may be kept or the 
field maintained, I leave to them that keep the garrisons ; and 
for myself I protest I can maintain neither. All the chief cap- 
tains and choice is taken from me, even those of my own ad- 
vancement, and I am left with a few, weak in all sorts ; whether 
against a strong enemy, yea or no, I leave to those who have 
experienced it. But sorrowing to weary your Lordship with my 
hard case, only craving your best endeavours to relieve me, I 
leave your Lordship to God, forbearing to fill my paper with the 
third part of my troubles \" 

^ Lord Willoughby to Lord Burghley, Hague, January 14, 1688-9. State 
Paper Office, Holland, vol. 61. Inclosing "Memorial for Mr. Killigrew to 
state to the Queen and Lord Burghley the A^arious difficulties, slights, &c. 



Of course the States of Holland were not well contented at 
the withdrawal of their English auxiliaries, and added to Wil- 
loughby's annoyance, by loading him with reproaches for breach 
of contract ; and it must be owned that they had some apparent 
cause of dissatisfaction, although they were mistaken in attri- 
buting it to him \ who, as a precautionary measure, gave them a 
counsel which created much dissatisfaction ; namely, that they 
should with their own people re-inforce the garrisons of Berghen 
and Ostend^, described by him in a former letter as in a state of 
peril. 

On the 22nd of January, Willoughby forwarded to England a 
well written and strongly expressed " declaration," to use his 
own word, setting forth many matters which he desired to be 
clearly understood. The first part of this document relates to 
an argument as to whether or not the States had offered to 
supply, by their own levies, the numbers to be withdrawn, in 
case of attack from the enemy, which they denied ; it next pro- 
poses the examination of the horse-bands, reported to be in a 
very decayed and ruined state ; and proceeds to other matters, 
respecting "additional companies of armed men to be joined to 
those already drawn forth, but not named fi^om whence, and no 
living creature can imagine whence they should be drawn." 
Willoughby goes on to complain of no direct command being 
given, discharging him of the care of these places, originally 
entrusted to him by her Majesty's letters patent, and under the 

under which Lord Willoughby laboured with regard to the withdrawal of 
the forces for the service under Norreys and Drake." 

1 Lord Willoughby to the Privy Council, Hague, January 15, 1588-9. 
State Paper Office, vol. 61. 

2 Lord Willoughby to the Privy Council, January 19, 1588-9. 



great seal ; representing that the letter he has received is not 
sufficient to acquit him of the duties pertaining to his commis- 
sion, nor Sir Edward Norreys's word (being but that of a private 
gentleman) competent to invalidate the authority of a General. 

Again, the means for the projected journey were dispropor- 
tioned to the end, and the whole left to Sir E. Norreys, " as 
though he could command the winds, the tides, the overthrows, 
the lets, the debts, the rights and dues accruing " to those who, 
not receiving them, would be dissatisfied. Next, Willoughby 
remarks on the imperfect condition of the companies of horse, 
when handed over by Lord Leicester, Sir John Norreys, and 
other captains, to those who succeeded them, and who had been 
forced to repair them at their own cost, as he had himself done in 
the case of such as he held from the two former. He adds a re- 
monstrance on some other deficiencies in the arrangements for the 
embarkment of the troops and the payment of the forces — a matter 
so long delayed, that now the soldiers were required to set off for 
a long voyage to Portugal, without any supplies but a few weekly 
lendings, and those liable to all the accidents of contrary winds 
and other such unfortunate occasions, which could not but be the 
cause of much discontent. " I acknowledge myself," he con- 
tinues, " infinitely bound for her Majesty's graces, never placed 
out of season ; but humbly pray she may vouchsafe to be per- 
suaded that a poor Baron of Willoughby is as worthy to serve 
her as another. For which cause he hath hitherto exposed him- 
self and his, as far as any of his sort, which he will be ever ready 
(not with insinuating to make good with her Majesty's purse, 
new adventures, like old lotteries), or in such sort ; neither with 
windy words to make the earth, heavens, crowns, and kingdoms 

to fall down before him, as some do ; glorying, with Artaxerxes, 

I i 



242 



WILLOUGHBY S DECLARATION. 



over a few ships, and not advising, with Socrates, upon a sound 
counsel ; but will make his deeds answerable to his faith, his 
charge to his credit, his goods to the answer of the one, and his 
life of the other, having received both from God, to offer them 
both for one Queen." 

" If it please her Majesty," he continues, " to disgrace me 
utterly, in calling all her forces hence, in plucking all my fea- 
thers from me, which God hath made me luckily to fly with for 
her service, I require I may not be left here without means, 
without soldiers of my training, without fruits of my labours, 
like nobody, to hew stones from the rock, for another to have the 
honour to polish them. But if it shall please her Majesty to 
grant me absolute leave (without her charge, without her recom- 
pense, or any thing else) to try the extremity of fortune, which 
for my honour I am driven unto, in any indifferent place, (ex- 
cepting her Majesty's enemies,) I persuade myself, by God's 
grace, at the end to do as much of my own for her Majesty's 
service, as some give out they will do with great sums of treasure 
gotten of herself. 

" To conclude, I beseech her Majesty to discharge me of 
Berghen and Ostend, under her hand and seal, as I am in like 
sort charged with them ; to excuse me if I keep neither field nor 
town, when all my soldiers are taken from me, and particularly 
such as I made myself. For I hoped my Lord Willoughby 
being Lord General for her Majesty in a certain war near Eng- 
land, had had as good reason to hold those he had advanced, as 
others in a removed war of hope \ not only to create new, but to 
choose whatsoever they listed ; so that I require no more but to 
be saved harmless, in plain, manifest, direct terms, of the charge 
^ Alluding to the projected voyage to Portugal. 



CONDUCT OF WINGFIELD. 243 



imposed on me by commission and letters, after the example of 
Sir William Russell for Flushing. And for the rest, the event 
shall try our fidelities and best services. And where some may 
oppose, or take objections, that these matters alleged by me now, 
might better have been objected at the first ; I confess, in truth, 
such was my honourable opinion of the gentlemen who managed 
the cause, as that they would leave nothing unthought of or 
undone, which might further the service of her Majesty, the 
relief of the poor men that should be called away, nor the credit 
and reputation of him that should be left here. And yet, all 
these difficulties considered, there shall want no forwardness in 
me to advance the voyage what I may '." 

Lord Willoughby's next communication is to the Privy Council 
concerning the ill conduct of a certain Captain Thomas Maria 
Wingfield, who, being one of the captains of his guard, had, with- 
out his passport, transported himself to England, for the purpose, 
he imagines, of representing his case in his own way, before 
Willoughby's charges against him could be heard. Whether his 
offence was by word or deed, is not specified in the letter in 
question, but is subsequently and at large detailed in one ad- 
dressed by Sir Francis Vere to Sir F. Walsingham, from Middle- 
burgh, on the 24th of February, 1588-9. It seems, that during 
the siege of Berghen, and while the pretended treaty for deliver- 
ing up the North Fort to the enemy was in hand. Sir William 
Russell (with Wingfield) arrived, with other gentlemen ; and 
that on the retreat of the Spaniards many prisoners were taken ; 

1 Document in the State Paper Office, Holland, vol. 61. Indorsed by 

Lord Burghley, " 22nd January, 1588. A Declaration of y^ l. Willoghbyes 

mislylTg of sondry thy~ges y* may hinder her Ma*^y'^ service." According to 

our computation, the date of this paper is 1589. 

li 2 



244 



VERE S OPINION. 



amongst others, one called Juan de Mendo^a the younger was 
captured by this Wingfield. Lord Willoughby, with the consent 
of the captains belonging to the fort, who were, says Vere, the 
best judges of the matter, bestowed the Spanish captains on 
Grimstone and Redhead, the chief actors on the occasion, as has 
been already mentioned ; a proceeding which so incensed Wing- 
field, that the matter was brought before a council of war, and 
the General's award approved of. Not contented, however, with 
this orderly proceeding and adjustment, Wingfield continued to 
address complaints to her Majesty's Council, which Willoughby 
being informed of (and going soon after to Flushing) called upon 
him to answer for himself before the governors and captains of 
the garrison. On his appearance, he confessed to have written 
home, as was reported, and to have done Lord Willoughby 
injury ; but offered to witness this avowal in writing, under his 
own hand ; which submission was accepted by the injured party, 
on condition that it should be so distinctly expressed, as to 
exonerate him from blame throughout the affair. Although, 
however, he promised every thing at the moment, no sooner had 
Winkfield retired, than he eluded the performance of his pro- 
mise, in reality at least, if not in appearance, offering merely so 
trivial an explanation as could by no means satisfy the General, 
and withdrawing himself in a most rebellious manner from the 
town, when the latter expressed his dissatisfaction, and demanded 
a more substantial confession. On this contumacious act. Lord 
Willoughby deprived him of his company, in the opinion of Vere 
himself, as well as many others, most justly. Sir Francis Vere's 
judgment must be looked upon as important, seeing he himself 
avows so great a regard for his " cousin Winkfield, that he 
would be as ready to speak in his right, as he had been to set 



WILLOUGHBY TO THE COUNCIL. 245 

this matter against him," being actuated by the desire of pre- 
venting differences between Lord Willoughby and Sir F. Wal- 
singham ; and deeming it right that the latter should not con- 
tinue misinformed, and so favour Winkfield, but should know 
how justly he had incurred the displeasure and punishment of 
his superior. 

Willoughby's own particular desire was, that the offence being 
publicly committed, might be publicly tried, and both sides 
heard before judgment be pronounced. He adds, that " Sir 
Thomas Wilford could give their Lordships to understand some 
of the first grounds, which are bad enough ; but the rest, proved 
under writing, as well as viva voce, will appear worse, if your 
Lordships may please to appoint time, place, and persons may 
hear it ; and I hope to give your Lordships that satisfaction of 
my carriage therein, as I may deserve your honourable opinions, 
and discover his bad deserts." He says, he should particularly 
desire to return home for a time, and with the better sort of 
captains to testify as to the matter before the Privy Council ; 
but doubting whether their Lordships would dispense with the 
duties of their charge in Holland, he suggests the laying of the 
cause before her Majesty's councillor, Mr. Bodley, the Council 
of Estate, or the Marshal of the Field, with all the Councils of 
War ; and trusts to their justice not to permit his credit and 
authority to be shaken, to the detriment of her Majesty's ser- 
vice ; as for his own reputation or satisfaction, he feels, he says, 
confident of their treating him with impartiality, but would never 
have troubled them on that score, but have digested it as well as 
he could \ 

1 Lord Willoughby to the Privy Council, Hague, January 23, 1588-9. 
State Paper Office, Holland, vol. 61. 



246 DEMANDS OF THE STATES. 

It would appear that the Queen's permission to return to 
England, dated on the 10th of January, had not yet reached 
Willoughby ; at least he still speaks as if his reeal was doubtful. 
On the 24th he wrote a letter, in very low spirits, to Burghley, 
informing him that the events he had so long prepared him for 
were now, he felt sure, near at hand ; that Berghen and Ostend, 
but especially the former, were in the greatest danger to be lost; 
and thus all the reputation which England had gained with the 
enemy and the country likely to be swept away. " I beseech 
you, therefore," he writes, "consider how these things maybe 
remedied. Assure yourself, if these few poor discouraged troops 
stay in this sort, the wilfulness and pride of these people, pro- 
mising them good fortune through the news of France, and other 
complices, will suffer them to run into all extremities, (as they 
did Sluys,) being rather content to lose a town for despite, to 
have our men's throats cut, and distaste the world of our nation, 
than to hold correspondency with her Majesty, and do them- 
selves good. I write not this upon spleen to them, for your 
Lordship may see spleen in these doings. I feel too much, and 
I doubt not but ere this Mr. Killigrew hath informed enough." 

At the same time, he forwarded a copy of an Act of the States 
General, which he considers as containing " very peremptory 
demands to such a monarch as her Majesty ;" and adds, that he 
perceives they are weary of him, and that they object to and 
dislike him for obeying her Majesty's commands. " The first 
news," he continues, " your Lordship will hear, will be the loss 
of Berghen, by the forts ; then of Ostend ; after, the revesting of 
themselves with the cautionary towns ; lastly, the flat and open 
falling out will be, the obstinate refusal to re-imburse her Ma- 
jesty's money." Already they talked of her as further engaged 



willoughby's advice. 247 



in the Spanish war than they \ and of their own alhances with 
France and Scotland being stronger than hers, " having lately 
written to one, and being on terms to send an embassy soon to 
the other;" also of their expectations from Denmark and other 
quarters, and that its trade (when closed to England) would be 
open for them ; " with a number of insolent hopes, betokening 
great alterations, too long to be set down." 

Willoughby concludes by advising that a fresh contract should 
be entered into with the ungrateful States ; but gave it as his 
decided opinion, that " this will never be well effectuated, before 
they be thoroughly feared (intimidated) ; and their fear must 
proceed either from being held in with strong numbers, or else 
utterly abandoned to feel their own weakness. 

" Either we must be so strong here, as of our strength they 
may fear us, or else so called home, as that their fear of the 
enemy increasing (which they as suddenly apprehend as they do, 
their carelessness being soon lifted up, and soon thrown down) 
they may, through the same fear, be humbled to recal us upon 
better and more advantageous conditions. But as things are, 
they can no way stand. 

" The only danger of abandoning is, lest they seek help else- 
where to our disadvantage ; the conditions of the war, and state 
of their neighbours, being greatly changed of that it hath been," 

It seems to have been Willoughby's hard fate to bear re- 
proaches on all sides at this juncture ; for while, on the one 

^ Inasmuch as she had ventured so much treasure and so many men in 
the Portuguese voyage. 

2 Lord Willoughby to Lord Burghley, Hague, January 24, 1 588-9. State 
Paper Office, Holland, vol. 6L 



hand, he was accused (though not by the Queen) of obstructing 
her Portuguese expedition ; on the other, the departure of the 
companies from Berghen and Ostend, for that voyage, drove the 
States into a fever of rage and fury, which they vented in bitter 
invectives against the Lord General, upbraiding him with the 
breach of promises and oaths ; " forgetting," says a contem- 
porary and eye-witness^, " all former good services he hath done 
them, in pacifying the mutinied towns and provinces bent against 
them, besides his honourable action at Berghen, &c. Her Ma- 
jesty being to expect no less ingratitude at the hands of so base 
persons and mutable minds, for her disbursed treasure, and in- 
finite other honourable favours, against whom also they would 
vomit their poison, if they were once masters again of the towns 
of assurance." 

The States proceeded to make a protest against the General 
for withdrawing the troops according to her Majesty's command ; 
and to declare, that should the measure be followed by any 
damage or loss, the fault and responsibility, as well as the 
burthen of the amends, would be laid on him ^. 

On the 30th of January, Willoughby still expecting " some 
news to be called home," communicated to Mr. Killigrew, that 
the States " grow more and more out of taste with him ; and that 
the fairer he speaks them, the more imkindly they entreat him. 
Their humours," he says, " are well known to you. They are 
now further out of liking with me, than with Sir William Rus- 



^ Mr. James Digges. See his letter to Lord Burghley, Hague, January 
24, 1588-9. State Paper Office, Holland, vol. 61. 

2 Mr. Gilpin to Sir F. Walsingham, Hague, January 25, 1588-9. State 
Paper Office, Holland, vol. 61. 



I 



OPPOSITION OF MORGAN. 249 

sell;" who, therefore, probably came in for a share of then- 
violent indignation and obstinate prejudices \ 

Sir Thomas Morgan, at Berghen, by siding with the Council 
of the Provinces, increased the difficulties of Willoughby's situ- 
ation. " I have sent," he writes, "to Berghen and Ostend, which 
is now the fourth command I have given to Sir Thomas Morgan 
to send away the companies for the voyage ; yet this day, in 
Council, there was a message delivered in his behalf to the 
States, that albeit I had commanded the men in readiness, and 
shipping and all provided, yet would he send none without their 
assent. For mine own part, I speak not this to aggravate matter 
against Morgan, (I protest it,) for he hath reason to please them, 
but only that you may understand my discharge. Sir Edward 
Norreys writes to me, that the Governor of Ostend standeth in 
terms also not to bend ; all which proceedeth that they have in 
other matters (I know not upon what backing) been accustomed 
to oppose always my authority." The last scene, therefore, of 
Willoughby's generalship in the Low Countries was as replete 
with vexation and crosses, as his first assumption of that au- 
thority. One prominent annoyance at this moment arose from 
the affair of Thomas Wingfield, and on which he thus expresses 
himself to Sir Francis Walsingham, who, without having heard 
him, and even being (in Vere's opinion) mis-informed on the 
case, had prejudged it against Willoughby ^ : 

" Honourable Sir, leave one ear open as a judge, for I desire 

1 Lord Willoughby to Mr. Henry Killigrew, Hague, January 30, 1588-9. 
State Paper Office, Holland, vol. 61. 

2 Lord Willoughby's expression to the Secretary is a curious one : " I 

say to you as the accused said to Caesar, appealing from him ill-informed to 

Mm well-informed." 

Kk 



250 WILLOUGHBY TO WALSINGHAM. 

no better than yourself. Believe not too lightly, where he that 
should obey calumniateth him that should be obeyed. I require 
not that respect which I might challenge for my place, the differ- 
ences of our lives, courses, and nourritures. Proceed on his side 
with all the just favour you can, and against me with all the just 
rigour you can ; but do it not by hearsay of him or me, but by 
hearing true proofs of us both, and then I know I shall find you 
honourable, as I have always held you. It cannot be long before 
I come home, when I shall be readier to witness than to write ; 
and in the mean season, I beseech you forbear to be transported 
with abuse against me, for I assure you the matter is of other 
grounds than you are informed ; and whether it be criminal and 
shameful, I will forbear to say till I prove \" 

In the mean while the preparations were continued for the 
Portuguese voyage ; and Willoughby had in the end the satis- 
faction of being able to assert, that he had performed all that the 
Queen had charged him with in the matter, and to declare that 
there had been no slackness on his part, nor on that of the 
" valiant and honest gentlemen" destined for the journey^, which 
declaration he was prepared to prove ; and at the same time, 
heartily thanking the Secretary (Walsingham) for his " last good 
turns" by him, he concludes his correspondence with him for the 
present. 

The last act pertaining to his office in Holland, appears to have 
been a message which (jointly with Sir Thomas Bodley) he sent 
to the Grave de Meurs and the Burgomasters of Utrecht, about 
the delivering up of Deventer and Clarehagen. Part of Bodley's 

1 Lord Willoughby to Sir Francis Walsingham, Hague, February 8, 
1588-9. State Paper Office, Holland, vol. 62. 

2 Ibid. 



VERE TO WALSINGHAM. 251 



charge from the Queen had been to move the States for some 
allowance to the Lord General " for the entertaining of intelli- 
gence ;" but by his own advice, and Mr. Killigrew's, he had for- 
borne to press it, finding them ungratefully disposed against him, 
notwithstanding all his services ^, by which they had so long 
profited, and which they had so lately acknowledged. 

On the 10th of February the instructions had been given to 
Allen, on which day Willoughby wrote to the Privy Council 
from the Hague. On the 18th he was on his way homewards ; 
and on the 19th, Sir Thomas Morgan wrote that many captains 
were absent from Berghen, " attending to take their leave of the 
General in Zealand^." 

The letter of Sir Francis Vere, from which an extract has 
already been made to clear up the matter of Wingfield, is next in 
the order of events ; and, as it relates chiefly to Willoughby, 
must take its place in its own words. He thus addresses Sir 
Francis Walsingham : 

" Right honourable : since my coming over, it hath pleased my 
Lord General to establish me in the office of Sergeant-Major, a 
place which divers months since his honour intended to call me 
to, but performed no sooner, doubting, as I judge, that, for my 
young years, I should not, at home, be held capable of so great 
a charge ; but after I had informed his Lordship of your honour's 
favourable inclination to do me good, he presently possessed me 
of the same. Wherefore I do yield your honour a great portion 
of thanks due for this benefit, assuring your honour that nobody 

^ Sir Thomas Bodley to Sir Francis Walsingham, Hague, February 20, 
1588-9. State Paper Office, Holland, vol. 62. 

2 See letters in the State Paper Office, of these three dates, from Wil- 
loughby, Gilpin, and Morgan. Holland, vol. 62. 

K k 2 



9^9 



DEPARTURE FROM HOLLAND. 



shall be readier to observe a good turn than myself, in perform- 
ing always the office of a poor vowed follower and friend. I 
have perceived, that through the sinister dealings of certain per- 
sons, some conceits of unkindness have been nourished between 
my Lord General and your honour, which hitherto, through the 
working of your most honourable and virtuous inclinations, have 
easily been removed, as of your honour's part appeared at my last 
being in England ; at what time, through your honour's most 
friendly solicitations in my Lord's behalf, his suits in court were 
happily dispatched ; whereof, when I had informed my Lord at 
my return, amongst many other speeches, which might show his 
great desire to link in a perpetual love and friendship with your 
honour, I will only set down this, — that he most heartily wished 
his eldest son ^ and your grandchild, my Lady Sidney's daughter, 
to be matched together ; which no doubt will come to pass, if it 
stand with your honour's liking ; whereof I stand in good hope, 
the young gentleman being, for his birth, years, and living, so fit, 
that England at this present yieldeth not a more honourable 
choice ; wherein if my good fortune were to work any thing, I 
should account myself a most happy man," &c. &c.^ 

On the 28th of February, Willoughby, who had some time be- 
fore left the Hague, and been apparently on the eve of departure, 
was still detained at Middleburgh by the pressure of business, 
but willing and hoping to sail for England in a day or two ^, and 
his arrival in London on the 14th of March is thus announced by 



* Robert Bertie, afterwards Earl of Lindsev. 

2 Sir Francis Vere to Sir Francis Walsingham, Middleburgh, February 
24, 1588-9. State Paper Office, Holland, vol. 62. 

3 Lord Willoughby to Sir F. Walsingham, Middleburgh, February 28, 
1588-9. State Paper Office, Holland, vol. 62. 



ARRIVAL IN ENGLAND. 253 



the Queen herself, in a letter to Sir Thomas Bodley, dated from 
Westminster on the 15th : 

" By the Queen. 
"Elizabeth R. 

" Trusty and well-beloved, we greet you well. Upon the 
arrival of the Lord Willoughby, our Governor, which was yester- 
night late, we understood that the States had levied and sent an 
army to besiege Gertrudenburgh, and that the same was com- 
passed secretly, without either a knowledge of him, or of you, 
our Councillor there, which seemed very strange unto us at the 
first \" 

With this notification of his arrival, we terminate the account 
of our hero's career in Holland. He had earned military fame 
when serving under Leicester ; the reputation of a brave general 
and skilful negotiator, when he subsequently filled his place ; 
and the undoubted regard of the Queen he served, notwithstand- 
ing the little breeze of indignation which his supposed obstinacy 
in the case of Morgan and Drury had excited for a moment 
against him. As a public character, therefore, he was a greater 
gainer than in his private capacity. His expenses during the 
whole of the campaign were enormous ; and according to the 
estimate furnished by his secretary, Morgan Colman, had swal- 
lowed up his whole income, " about £2200 or £2300 per 
annum, saving what was allowed to his lady;" he had sold 
"great store of woods, and all the stock his father left him," 
amounting to a very large sum ; had "pawned his plate silver 
vessell, and all his own and his lady's jewels; had mortgaged 
his land in Norfolk to supply his wants in these wars, and by the 

^ Extract of a letter from Queen Elizabeth to Sir Thomas Bodley, West- 
minster, March 15 (1589). British Museum, Galba, J). VII. fol. 90. 



254 



EXPENSES OF THE GENERAL. 



same means had run into a debt of at least £4000." Nor can 
this be wondered at. when we find it stated, that besides the 
necessary charges brought upon him by the situation he held, and 
by the obligation of forwarding intelligence as General, and of 
travelling in such a country, he also bestowed rewards on the 
deserving, for the sake of her Majesty's service, and the encou- 
ragement of well-doers ; from his own purse re-inforced his 
company of horse to two hundred, which had fallen to sixty, 
when delivered up to his charge ; continued to supply the place 
of any horse that chanced to be killed, from his own purse ; 
maintained almost entirely a number of Dutch captains and offi- 
cers received into his cornet ; gave or lent sums of money often 
to relieve her Majesty's captains and other gentlemen in ex- 
tremities ; raised a company of one hundred horse at his own 
expense ; and at the encounter at Zutphen (especially where his 
person was so endangered) lost many horses, " for which he was 
never considered." 

For all this, Willoughby only desired to have the allowance 
awarded by the Council of £1000 a year, and payment for the 
victuals and provisions with which he had furnished Berghen 
before the siege, in order that he might be enabled to defray his 
debts ; adding, that he was most willing to yield his whole re- 
venue, if her Majesty and the country would undertake the just 
payment of what would still be due ; and that if the States could 
be drawn to allow £2000 or £3000 a year, he would resign her 
Majesty's allowance, " being no way willing, more than neces- 
sity compelleth him, to draw her Majesty into extraordinary 
charge \" 



1 Estimate of Lord Willoughby's charges, by his secretary, Morgan Col- 
man. State Paper Office, Holland, vol. 62. This paper is indorsed, " 13th 



His distinguished bravery in this war against the Spaniards, 
then the objects of particular dislike to England, gained for Lord 
Willoughby a well-earned and merited applause, and made him 
the hero of the following popular ballad \ with which we shall 
take our leave of Holland : — 

" A true relation of a famous and bloody battle, fought in Flanders by the 
noble and valiant Lord Willoughby, with fifteen hundred English against 
forty thousand Spaniards, where the English obtained a notable victory, for 
the glory and renown of our nation. 




" To the tune of Lord Willoughby. 

" The fifteenth day of July, 

With glistering spear and shield, 
A famous fight, in Flanders, 

Was foughten in the field. 
The most courageous officers, 

Were English captains three : 
But the bravest man in battel 

Was brave Lord Willoughbey ; 



December," but it is probably of a later date, as it mentions that Lord Wil- 
loughby received £4 a day till December, and £6 a day since. — Appendix, 
art. MM. 

1 From Ant. Wood's MSS. Coll. in the Ashmolean, fol. 68. Printed for 
F. Coles, in Vine Street, near Hatton Garden. 



" The next was Captain Norris, 

A valiant man was hee ; 
The other, Captain Turner, 

From field would never flee. 
With fifteen hundred fighting men, 

Alas ! there were no more, 
They fought with forty thousand then, 

Upon this bloody shore. 



" Stand to it, noble pikemen, 

And look you round about ; 
And shoot you right, you bowmen. 

And we will keep them out. 
You musquet and ealliver men. 

Do you prove true to me, 
I'll be the foremost man in fight. 

Says brave Lord Willoughbey. 



" And then the bloody enemy 

They fiercely did assail. 
And fought it out most furiously, 

Not doubting to prevail. 
The woxmded men on both sides fell, 

Most piteous for to see. 
Yet nothing could the courage quell 

Of brave Lord Willoughbey. 



" For seven hours, to all men's view. 

This fight endured sore. 
Until our men so feeble grew. 

That they could fight no more ; 
And then upon dead horses 

Full savourly they eat, 
And drunk the puddle water, 

For no better they could get. 



BALLAD. 257 



" When they had fed so freely, 

They kneeled on the ground, 
And praised God devoutly, 

For the favour they had found ; 
And bearing up their colours, 

The fight they did renew. 
And turning towards the Spaniards, 

Five thousand more they slew. 



" The sharp steel-pointed arrows. 

And bullets thick did fly ; 
Then did our valiant souldiers 

Charge on most furiously ; 
Which made the Spaniards waver, — 

They thought it best to flee ; 
They feared the stout behaviour 

Of brave Lord Willoughbey. 



" Then quoth the Spanish General , 

Come let us march aw^ay, 
I fear we shall be spoiled all, 

If that we longer stay ; 
For yonder comes Lord Willoughbey, 

With courage fierce and fell, 
He will not give one inch of ground. 

For all the devils in hell. 



*"' And then the fearful enemy 

Was quickly put to flight ; 
Our men pursued courageously. 

And rout their forces quite. 
And at last they gave a shout, 

Which echoed through the sky, 
God and St. George for England ! 

The conquerors did cry. 



L 1 



" The news was brought to England 

With all the speed might be, 
And told unto our gracious Queen 

Of this same victory. 
this is brave Lord Willoughbey, 

My love bath ever won ; 
Of all the Lords of honour, 

'Tis he great deeds hath done. 



" For souldiers that wei'e maimed'. 

And wounded in the fray, 
The Queen allowed a pension 

Of eighteen-pence a day ; 
Besides all costs and charges 

She quit and set them free. 
And this she did all for the sake 

Of brave Lord Willoughbey. 



" Then courage, noble Englishmen, 

And never be dismayed ; 
If that we be but one to ten. 

We will not be afraid 
To fight with foreign enemies, 

And set our country free ; 
And thus I end this bloody bout 

Of brave Lord Willoughbey '." 



Many events of importance had occurred in England during 
the absence of Willoughby ; amongst others, the trial and death 
of Mary, Queen of Scots, and the demise of Leicester, which took 
place at the close of the year 1588. 



^ There is a spirited woodcut in No. 460 of the Penny Magazine, which 
mentions this ballad as "picturing and chronicling true events." 



TRIAL or LORD ARUNDEL. 259 

Shortly after his arrival in England, he was appointed one of 
the Commissioners in the trial of Philip Howard, Earl of Arun- 
del, who, having been committed to the Tower in the year 1585, 
was in 1586 accused before the Star Chamber, and finally, in 
1589, arraigned in Westminster Hall, before Henry, Earl of 
Derby (made Lord High Steward of England for the purpose), 
and tried by his peers for high treason. The Commissioners 
were in all three-and-twenty ; and when the day drew towards 
its close, and the charges and defence had been weighed against 
each other, they retired to consider their verdict. The chief 
heads of the accusation were, that he had held a correspondence 
with Cardinal Allen, and a Jesuit named Parsons \ who were 
engaged in dangerous plots against the Queen and government. 
That he had contumeliously slandered the justice of England, by 
questioning (in a letter to her Majesty) the equity of the sen- 
tences by which his father and grandfather had been deprived of 
life ; and that he had purposed to depart and quit the realm 
without licence. That he had prayed for the success of the 
Spanish armada ; had styled himself, in his papers, Duke of 
Norfolk, while Allen advised him to assume a higher title, &c. 
The peers brought in a verdict of " guilty ^" and sentence of 
death was pronounced against him, but afterwards remitted by 
the Queen, who appears to have been satisfied with dealing a 
blow against the Romish party, by thus weakening the influence 
of this powerful nobleman. 

But we must now turn our eyes to France, where at this 

^ This Richard Parsons was author of "The Three Conversions of Eng- 
land," and of a celebrated Hbel on Lord Leicester, called " Leicester's Com- 
monwealth." 

2 Camden's EHzabeth, p. 428. 

L 1 2 



260 



AFFAIRS OF FRANCE. 



period religious differences had risen to a high pitch ; and as 
Elizabeth was called upon to interfere by one of the contending 
parties, and as she appointed Lord Willoughby commander of 
the troops sent as succours to the King of Navarre, it will be 
necessary to glance at the circumstances in which the kingdom of 
France was for the moment placed, and the immediate causes 
which led the Queen to take this step, before we enter on this 
new scene of his campaigns. 

It is well known that on the death of Henry the Third, the 
King of Navarre was the next heir to the French monarchy, as 
the late murdered sovereign, and his brothers, the Duke of 
Anjou, &c. had left no children ; but Henry of Navarre's pro- 
fession of the reformed religion was, of course, a barrier to his 
succeeding to the throne in the eyes of the majority of the 
Romish party. Accordingly he was declared, by proclamation, 
a heretic, and incapable of wearing the crown, although acknow- 
ledged by the late monarch as his natural and lawful heir '. The 
Cardinal of Bourbon, at that time a prisoner at Chinon, in the 
hands of the Huguenots, was selected, after some hesitation, to 
fill the vacant throne ; and the Due de Mayenne, or Mayne, 
named "Lieutenant-General of the crown of France;" whilst the 
Protestant party, supported by the flower of the old Roman 
Catholic nobility (with a few distinguished exceptions), rallied 
round the standard of Henry of Navarre ; these last, it is true, 
although their loyalty was proof against desertion from his cause, 
joining him with caution, and only on certain secretly-implied 
conditions. With this band of adherents, the King had taken up 
his quarters at Dieppe, in Normandy, and found himself hard- 



Camden's Elizabeth, p. 436. 



pressed, and almost reduced to extremity. He made, however, 
the best arrangement in his power for the safety of his army, and 
encamped at a short distance from the town, from whence he 
despatched messengers in all haste to Elizabeth, soliciting the 
assistance of that princess, and offering to enter into a league 
with her, offensive and defensive \ The Queen was well-in- 
clined to uphold and succour him ; and knowing how greatly he 
needed pecuniary assistance, (especially to keep together the mer- 
cenary Swiss and German soldiers who had joined his standard,) 
she forwarded to him the sum of £22,000 (English money) in 
gold, and sent also four thousand men, under the command of 
Peregrine Bertie, Lord Willoughby, " who," says Camden, " had 
with high commendations commanded the army in the Low 
Countries after Leicester's departure ^." She appointed for 
colonels. Sir Thomas Wilford (who was made Marshal), Sir 
John Boroughs, Sir William Drury, and Sir Thomas Baskerville, 
names familiar to us, from their exertions in the late Dutch 
campaign. Her instructions to Lord Willoughby are so explicit, 
and contain so much matter relative to her position at the mo- 
ment, to the war in the Low Countries, and her present assist- 
ance of France, that it must be nearly all inserted. It commences 
by addressing him thus : 

" Whereas we have made an especial choice of you, to have 
the chief charge of the leading and conduction of such forces as 
we send presently over to the town of Dieppe, in the realm of 
France, for the assistance of our good brother, the French king, 
against his rebels, and other enemies to the said king ; you shall 

1 Camden's Elizabeth, p. 436. 

2 Camden, p. 436. Daniel says that the succours amounted to four thou- 
sand English, and, besides, one thousand Scots. 



immediately upon your arrival there, and at the time of your 
access unto the king, let him understand that the hearing how 
hardly he both was and is assailed by his rebels, (being careful of 
his well-doing, and tendering the same no less than if he were 
our own natural brother,) have for his better assistance sent over, 
under your charge and conduction, the number of four thousand 
footmen, paid for one month ; which number, you may tell him, 
should have been far greater, and paid for a longer time, were 
not both us and our subjects so greatly charged, as we have been, 
and are likely to be still, in making head, not only in these our 
realms of England and Ireland, but also in the Low Countries, 
against the King of Spain, one of the greatest and most puissant 
monarchs this day in Europe, having not received from any other 
prince, potentate, or any other person, the assistance of one 
penny or of one man ; although other princes (considering the 
only question against us is for religion) ought in the true course 
of Christianity (making profession of the same religion as we do) 
to join with us in a common defence of the same ; and therefore 
you may let him know, being daily put, as we are, to a continual 
charge, both in the said Low Countries, and maintaining ships at 
the sea, to withstand such attempts as may be by him made 
against us, we cannot be able to continue the pay of the same 
number of four thousand men any longer time than for the space 
of one month, and therefore have given you charge (in case the 
said King of himself shall not be able to pay the said forces) to 
make your return home with the said numbers, which our ex- 
press meaning is, you shall perform accordingly. But if that 
you shall understand that the King shall be able of himself to 
pay them, and shall stand in need of their assistance, and shall 
therefore desire that they may continue there for a longer time 



TO LORD WILLOUGHBY. 



263 



in his pay, we are then pleased that the said numbers, or some 
part of them, as shall seem convenient, shall continue there to 
serve, so long as the King shall stand in need of them, and shall 
have means to content them according to our pay. And in this 
behalf we would have both you and our servant. Sir Edward 
Stafford, our ambassador resident there, if you shall find him 
there at the time of your arrival, to feel his mind therein be- 
times, to the end that if he shall not be able to entertain them, 
there may be order taken for the sending over of ships thither 
for their transportation, in convenient time before the month 
shall be ended." The Queen proceeds to command Willoughby 
to be very exact in the punishment of sundry abuses, which of 
late years had been committed by divers captains and officers in 
her army, offences extremely injurious to her service (namely, 
the dismissing, for money, persons belonging to the companies 
entrusted to them, and who were willing and fit to be continued, 
and either supplying their place by the ill-conditioned, evil- 
disposed, or leaving them void, though she was still at charges 
for the whole number), and winds up her advice and orders in 
the following words : " And for that it often faileth out in those 
camps where divers nations do serve, that there do rise, many 
times, many dangerous and unnecessary quarrels, and that for 
slight matter ; we would have you give especial charge to such 
officers as shall have the chief charge of the said forces under 
you, to see that no occasion be given, whereby there may rise 
any such quarrels or disagreements between them and any of the 
King's forces ; especially that no offence be given for matter of 
religion, by entering into their churches, and using some con- 
temptuous behaviour at the time of their assembly for prayer, 
which may for many respects work great prejudice to the King ; 



considering that great part of his forces and subjects are of 
a contrary religion both to himself and to our nation ; and yet 
by his wisdom and temperance he hath them devoted to his 



service ^" 



These instructions were sufficiently clear and decisive ; but 
the withdrawal of those forces which had assembled around 
Dieppe, and made the King a prisoner there, seemed to render 
the presence of the English auxiliaries less necessary ; and, 
accordingly, Elizabeth's ambassador. Sir Edward Stafford, wrote 
in great haste, to inform Lord Willoughby that the enemy had 
retired from the town, and to beg that he and the troops under 
him would remain quiet, till her Majesty's pleasure, and that of 
her Council, should be made known. 

It appears that Willoughby and a chosen few were prepared 
for the service of the King, but that Elizabeth had directed her 
ambassador to give immediate information, should the enemy be 
meanwhile dislodged " ; whether, however, Henry renewed his 
solicitations for assistance, or that Elizabeth did not reckon him 
sufficiently secure to warrant her withdrawal, or from whatever 
cause it might be, the English army was not detained, and all 
those companies that could be got in readiness landed at Dieppe, 
under the command of Lord Willoughby, on the morning of 
the 28th of September ^. The victory which Henry of Navarre 
had gained at St. Etienne, near Argues, on the 17th of the 

^ Draft of instructions for Lord Willoughby, September 20, 1589. The 
original draft corrected by Lord Burghley and Sir F. Walsingham. State 
Paper Office, France, 1589. 

^ Sir Edward Stafford to Lord Willoughby, Dieppe, September 26, 1589. 
State Paper Office, France, 1589. 

^ Willoughby and Staffi)rd to the Privy Council, Dieppe, September 29th. 
State Paper Office, France. 



RECEPTION BY HENRY. 265 



month ^, and the flight of the Leaguers, had raised his spirits, and 
must have struck them with astonishment ; for so confident were 
their expectations of success, that when their vast army of thirty- 
thousand men followed the comparatively small force of seven 
thousand, commanded by the King of Navarre, into Normandy, 
many persons at Paris hired windows in a principal street, in 
order to enjoy a full view of the expected triumphant return of 
the Due de Mayenne, leading the captive Bearnois (as they 
termed the King) to the Bastille ''. Notwithstanding, however, 
the renewed hopes of the latter, he seems to have most cordially 
greeted his new allies ; and that he was not mistaken in hoping 
much from their presence and courage, will appear by the follow- 
ing account of the good and effective service which they rendered 
him during the period of that brilliant success, which even in its 
early stage marked his conflict for his rightful crown. 

The King, on hearing of Willoughby's arrival, immediately 
sent for Sir E. Stafford, to whom, as well as to the General (in a 
subsequent interview), he expressed how grateful he felt to the 
Almighty, for the aid thus sent from England in the hour of 
need ; assuring them, that although he had assented to put off 
their coming, from the fear of offending or laying a charge on the 
Queen, he desired nothing more than their appearance, which 
was the more welcome from its being now unlooked for, and at a 
moment when he had just received news that put him especially 
on the alert. He proceeded to inform his hearers, that he had 
notice that the Duke de Mayenne was again turned to Mons. de 

^ A contemporary plan of this battle is engi'aved in the Archceologia, vol. 
xxiv. p, 298, from the origmal (probably that sent to Elizabeth or Burghley) 
in the British Museum, Cott. Aug. I. ii. 88. 

2 Daniel. 

M m 



266 THE king's explanation. 



Longueville ; but added with a winning grace, that strengthened 
by such allies, bearing him so much good-will, and backed up by 
the known kindly regard of their sovereign, he so far from feared 
his foe, that he looked forward only with the confident hope of a 
glorious victory, which he would gratefully " acknowledge of 
God and her Majesty." He intreated the Queen no longer to 
delay the rest of the succours, nor to deprive him soon of those 
he had already received, and in whom he felt such confidence ; 
promising to do his best to provide for them to their satisfaction 
and that of their sovereign, and to give all due attention to the 
means of doing so, as soon as he could spare time from the urgent 
business which now pressed upon him. The King then broke 
up the interview, after alluding to some letters he had despatched 
to Elizabeth ; and having made every necessary explanation, 
hastened to prepare for those active movements which he now 
contemplated as of immediate necessity. 

After the Ambassador and General had written this account of 
his words and actions, and had cheerfully observed how gladly 
the arrival of the English was hailed, they perceived some ships 
bearing towards them from England ; but still, according to the 
King's desire, forwarded his messages just given, lest there might 
be any mistake or delay \ 

^ Lord Willoughby and Sir E. Stafford to the Privy Council, Dieppe, Sep- 
tember 29, 1589. State Paper Office, France, 1589. The very day after 
this letter was written, we find, in the State Paper Office, a letter from 
Morgan Cohnan (Lord Willoughby's secretary) to Sir F. Walsingham, re- 
monstrating on the appointment of two to command in one country : unless 
he alludes to a commission granting to Lord Howard of Effingham, not only 
his government of the seas, but also the charge of the four thousand men 
sent to France (but which was never acted on), it is difficult to conjecture to 
what he refers. 



On the 30th of September, Willoughby writes one of his 
own straightforward and characteristic letters. " Our Sussex 
and Hampshire companies," he says, " are arrived, ill-furnished, 
ill-chosen, and badly armed." The London troops and ammu- 
nition had not yet appeared. How mortifying in the presence 
of the King, and amid the highly- wrought expectations of the 
French ! With some satisfaction, however, he adds, that Cap- 
tain Lewson's (Luzon's) band from Kent hath saved the reputa- 
tion of the nation in their eyes ; and this, from his own, or at 
least his father's connexion with Kent, was probably especially 
gratifying to him. He prays that the Queen may be for the 
future better served ; and those punished, whose negligence 
makes her army cut so poor a figure in a foreign clime. If the 
fault "be ours, I would," says he, "we were heard and pu- 
nished, if the country's example would be made, lest the con- 
sequence be perilous." He adds, that these matters are, however, 
above his reach, and that he finds it enough to do his duty in his 
own charge ; also, he shall forbear to write home for the present, 
till " God send him occasion to write of his metier \" 

His hopes of active service were soon fulfilled : " Most gra- 
cious Sovereign," he writes to his royal mistress, two days after, 
" your especial favours to myself, and to this cause wherein I 
serve you, did hasten me, as your Majesty commanded, that 
your charge, already enfunded in England, might receive in 
France the thanks and honour which your Majesty had right in. 
The King being advertised by me on Sunday of your gracious 
pleasure, advice, bountiful succours, and care of his estate, pro- 



^ Lord Willoughby to Sir F. Walsiugham, Dieppe, September 30, 1589. 
State Paper Office, France, 1589. In this letter he inclosed, according to 

her command, one for the Queen. 

M m 2 



mised on Monday to dispatch his own thanks. On Tuesday, 
going from hence with some two hundred horses, he joined with 
Duke Longueville, near to Gammache ; from whence he sent 
word yesterday, that he would seek all means to encounter his 
enemy, who yet held together to join either with La Mott and 
the Duke of Parma his forces, or else for some attempt upon the 
King ; hereupon Mareschal Byron quartering us at Appeville 
and the other villages near hereby, is this day gone to find the 
King, about four leagues hence, appointing us to be immediately 
ready for such further march as the King shall direct before 
night. If the enemy will abide it, we are like to assail them 
forthwith. The victory (next after Him that governs the hea- 
vens) the King will attribute to your Majesty, to whom (above 
all others on earth) he confesseth to owe most unto. Thus most 
humbly craving your Majesty's pardon, I leave with shame of my 
rude and hasty writing, but with all the duty a poor wretch may 
owe unto so excellent a sovereign. From Dieppe, the 2nd of 
October, 1589 \" 

Henry of Navarre did not lose time or opportunity, but 
pressed on to his goal ; while the panic caused by the English 
name still held his foes in check ; and the opportune succours of 
Elizabeth had supplied him with money to still the clamours of 
the Swiss troops, who had begun to give him to understand, 
"point d'argent, point de Suisse^;" and now strengthened in 
numerical force, and invigorated by the bright feeling of hope, 
he in his turn became the pursuer, and marched at once on Paris. 
How great must have been the surprise of its inhabitants to find 

1 Letter iii the British Museum, Ex Cotton. MS., Galba, E. "VI. folio 
1126, art. 143. 

2 Daniel. 



him so close at hand, who, till he was within a league of the 
city, did not dream of his approach, and who now beheld him at 
the head of his English allies as well as his own troops, taking 
possession of the villages lying round Paris. The reduction of 
the town itself appeared no easy undertaking ; but Henry's 
orders were prompt and decisive, and as vigorously executed as 
planned. 

It was determined that the English should enter the trenches 
of St. Marckan, and the French those of St. Jermain ; and on 
the morning after this resolution it was carried into effect, with 
great bravery on both sides. Even the French, loth to praise the 
courage of others, did Willoughby's troops the justice to approve 
of their actions, while they also extolled the vigilance of their 
commanders. Theirs was the hardest task, but their valour 
broke through its obstacles ; they seized the enemy's ensigns, and 
with little loss made themselves masters of a part of " the town." 
It is believed that Paris was then the King's, if he had followed 
Lord Willoughby's advice, and brought his artillery to support 
his advantage. " But God," says a contemporary writer \ " will 
not that this King yet come to this fortune ; but for to do that 
which was, there was need of night, which was spent, and God 
supplied it with a mist, which fitted rather better." The English 
advanced as far as " St. Victor's Gate," and were on the point of 
entering, when the King sounded a retreat, and broke up the 

* W. Lyly to Sir F. Walsingham, " Moule, 4th November," i. e. 25th 
October (Old Style), 1589. State Paper Office, France, 1589. This Mr. 
Lyly seems, from the correspondence in the State Paper Office, to have been 
an expatriated Englishman, Avell received at the French Court, and after- 
wards m communication with the English government. See also Lyly's 
Confession in the Cotton. MS., Galba, C. VIII. fol. 185. 



270 



CONSULTATION. 



siege ^ though he might, in all human probability, have lodged 
that night in the University ^, It was believed that he had some 
intelligence with persons in Paris ^, and was probably guided by 
their advice, or (as some have supposed) pursued this course 
from the dictates of policy, and an unwillingness to deliver the 
metropolis into the hands of a foreign foe. It seems it had been 
his object to provoke the Due de Mayenne to give him battle* ; 
and was willing to oblige him to do so by a plan of attack which 
threatened the destruction of the city. 

A consultation was held next day, and about noon it was 
asserted that Nemours had entered with six hundred horse, and 
De Mayenne with his army had arrived at St. Denis ; also, that 
the King's friends were discovered and committed to prison. All 
this increased the King's hazard in now renewing the attempt^, 
and setting all upon this one hazard, with no reserve at hand in 
case of failure ; and with such a difficulty of communication even 
with Dieppe and the coast (the Leaguers lining the road), that it 
was a matter of perilous service to convey the official letters 
from the English government to the Governor- General of the 
troops ^. Henry consequently withdrew his army from the fau- 



^ Camden's Elizabeth, p. 436. 

2 William Lyly's letter, State Paper Office. The University was without 
the walls of the town. 

^ Mr. Ottywell Smith to Sir F. Walsingham, Dieppe, " November 5" or 
(Old Style) October 25, 158}). State Paper Office, France. 

'^ Camden's Elizabeth, p. 436. 

^ W. Lyly to Sir F. Walsingham, State Paper Office. 

e Mr. Ottywell Smith to Sir F. Walsingham, State Paper Office, 26th 
October, Old Style ; " 5th November," New Style. The change in the com- 
putation of time, introduced by Pope Gregory, creates some discrepancy in 
the dates of this period, especially as the same persons occasionally used one 
method, and occasionally the other. Although not adopted in England until 



HENRY TO ELIZABETH. 271 



bourgs, and for four hours they stood in battle-array before the 
town, and then marched to Estampes, to regain that place and its 
castle ; meanwhile the King addressed the following expressions 
of gratitude to Elizabeth, and acknowledgments of the services 
rendered by her subjects : 

" Apres le succes de I'alarme et frayeur que j'ay donne a la 
ville de Paris * * * * 

" Vous voulant bien assurer, Madame, que jy aye este sy 

veurteusement servy de vos troupes, et avec tant de preuves de 

la sage conduite et valeur du Baron de Willeby, dignement 

secondee aussi de tons les autres jantyshommes^ vos sigets quy 

sont icy quy honorent de plus en plus le jugement de la bonne 

election que vous avez feyte, et augmentent I'oblygayson que je 

vous avay accompagnee de tant d'autres, qu'yl ne reste plus 

ryen au moy mesme que je ne doive dire etre plus vostre que 

myen, &c. 

"Henry. 

"J'attend avec assurance la continuasyon de vostre bonne 

volonte au fort de mon besoign ^." 

Lord Willoughby's despatch to the Privy Council will best 
explain the immediate proceedings of the King's party on their 

the year 1751, yet it appears that Englishmen, when in France, dated their 
letters after the fashion of that country, and of the Gregorian calendar, that 
is, ten days m advance, as early as 1589 at least. To prevent confusion, the 
letters are here placed in their real order of succession. 

^ Amongst others who distinguished themselves at the siege of Paris, 
Mr. Ljdy mentions to Sir F. Walsingham especially Sir Roger Williams, 
Mr. Buckhurst, and Mr. Gerard, who accompanied La Nove, the conductor 
of the French forces. The English, however, began to suffer severely from 
want of food. 

2 Rymer's Foedera. 



272 



LETTER TO THE PRIVY COUNCIL. 



withdrawal from the walls of Paris. It is dated Merinville, 
October 29th, and runs thus : 

"Hoping that my former letters have had good passage, I am 
bold to refer the journey of Paris, and how much honour her 
Majesty's subjects did unto her, to be reported by this bearer. 
Sir Roger Williams, who bare himself there greatly to his praise. 
After our abode two nights, the King resolving to retire to Tours 
ward, and bringing us with him to Estampes, where he had both 
town and castle, of no great force : we, seeing no likelihood of 
our further employment, desired to know his pleasure for our 
return ; and fearing to be carried all along to Tours, and so to 
Rochelle, we prayed address to Dieppe, as best for our trans- 
portation ; alleging further, to some of his council, how long a 
voyage we had to make by land these shortening days, how we 
have neither weekly lendings of money, nor daily bread of 
ammonition, according to the King's accord. And if in this want 
we provide for ourselves never so moderately, yet are the com- 
plaints great ; and our misery by famine, ill lodging, and other 
entreaty, is harder than any of the Swisses, or any nation march- 
ing with us, which yet I judge not by any means to come of the 
King's want of good-will, but of other want. Notwithstanding 
this, it liked him for some respects of his service and our safety, 
to appoint us the way to Caen, there to attend passage at Gran- 
ville or Cherburg, whither we look to march presently with our 
best speed. It may therefore please your good Lordships to 
think good to prepare such sufficient shipping for our speedy 
transportation, as we may neither consume ourselves, nor be 
giievous to those parts, by lying long such numbers in one 
place, having nothing at all of the King, neither for our enter- 
tainment here, nor yet toward our transportation home. Our 



regiments are yet reasonable fair for number and arms, (I thank 
God,) whom I beseech to preserve them even so into Eng- 
land \" 

In the mean while, the few English left at Dieppe were sur- 
prised at receiving no letters from the King's camp, nor any to 
the Governor of the town, which therefore they concluded had 
been intercepted ; but from other sources, and on good authority, 
they had obtained pretty accurate information as to the late pro- 
ceedings, as to the advantages the King had gained, the distin- 
guished valour of the English, the taking of the suburbs through 
their means, and the praise for courage bestowed on them even 
by their enemies, the Leaguers ^. 

The news soon reached them through a man that came from 
the camp, that "the Reisters had joined with the King's forces, 
and that since that, both Estampes and Corbell are rendered to 
the King ; that the Bastille should hold for the King, and that 
there was great division amongst the Leaguers of Paris ;" also, 
there was a man hanged for holding for the King, who told 
them with his dying breath, that do what they would, in 
the end Paris would undoubtedly fall into the hands of Henry, 
for that within its walls were six thousand men devoted to his 
cause ^. 

From England, Elizabeth's satisfaction was thus expressed in 
a letter to Lord Willoughby : 

1 Letter in the State Paper Office, France, 1589. 

2 Letter from Ottywell Smith to Sir F. Walsingham, October 30, Old 
Style, or " November 10, 1589." State Paper Office, France. 

3 Letter from Mr. Ottywell Smith to Sir F. Walsingham, Dieppe, Novem- 
ber 4, or " November 14." State Paper Office, France, 1589. 

N n 



274 ELIZABETH TO WILLOUGHBY. 

" By the Queen. 
" Your most loving Sovereign, Elizabeth. 
" Right trusty and well-beloved, we greet you well. Being 
given to understand, as well by our good brother, the French 
king, as by Mons. de Beauvoir la Motte, his ambassadour, as by 
information received from others, of the great value and good 
service done by yourself, and by the rest of the colonels, cap- 
tains, and companies under your charge, in the late attempt upon 
the suburbs of Paris, and in such other services as have been 
committed unto you by direction from the King, and other prin- 
cipal officers of his army ; We have, therefore, thought good to 
take knowledge thereof to your comfort, and to let you know 
how grateful and acceptable news it was unto us, and how much 
we hold ourselves bound to thank Almighty God for blessing us 
with subjects of that worth and value, as you have showed to be 
in you, in a service so greatly importing not only our (bond ?), 
and the strengthening and safety of a King so greatly devoted to 
us and our realm, in good-will, as he is, but also the good and 
benefit of the common cause, that is so mightily assailed by so 
many and potent enemies ; and further, we will you to make 
known to all the colonels, captains, and soldiers, our subjects, 
there serving under you, our princely and grateful acceptance of 
this their worthy service, so highly recommended from all parts, 
and to assure all and every of them that they shall find us 
mindful of it to their comfort, when any occasion shall be offered. 
Given under our signet, at our mansion at Richmond, the 9th day 
of November, in the thirtieth year of our reign \" 

^ " To our right trusty and well-beloved Sir Peregryne Bertye, Knight, 
Lord Willughby and Eresby, Captain- General of our forces sent into 
France." From a copy of the original at Grimsthorpe. 



REDUCTION OF VENDOSME. 



275 



After winning Estampes, the King with his army marched to 
Joinville \ and demanded entrance. It was refused, till he 
brought his cannon to enforce it ; when, on condition that life 
and liberty should be spared them, the besieged yielded to their 
sovereign. " From thence," says Willoughby's Journal, *' the 
King marched to Chateau Dun; and on Thursday, the 6th of 
November, came before Vendosme;" and the same night, about 
eight of the clock, our regiments came thither. About ten of the 
clock that evening, we entered, by surprise and scalado, the 
fauxbourgs of St. George, with Mons. Daumont, and possessed 
the same, with slaughter of thirty or forty of the enemy. 

The next day the King summoned the town and castle by 
trumpet, which after some parley refused to yield. Our men 
made their approach, and were entrenched within pistol-shot of 
the castle. 

On Saturday the King viewed the grounds of advantage, and 
planted his artillery ; viz. five cannons to batter the castle on 
the side towards Temple, and two culverins in another place 
flanking the same battery within the castle. All that night the 
King lay in the field ; and the next morning, about sun-rising, 
began to batter. After some breach made, the enemy sounded a 
trumpet for parley, but it was not hearkened unto. By noon, 
two breaches being made, the castle was entered by the French, 
and the town (in the mean time) by the English. 

" All that day and night the town was spoiled, the Governor 
beheaded, and a seditious friar hanged ! 

" Monday the King bestowed in ordering and pollicing the 
town and castle ^" 

» October 31, Old Style. Here Willougliby uses the Old Style. 

2 Journal of Lord Willoughby. The Governor had provoked Henry by 

N n 2 



This was a conquest of some importance, and it is a curious 
coincidence that Willoughby should have been so mainly instru- 
mental in reducing the same town, which, with the country round 
it, was bestowed (according to Camden) on his ancestor, Robert 
Willoughby, Governor of Normandy, by Henry the Fifth, as a 
reward for his valour. From Vendosme the King marched 
silently and secretly to Tours, and as was supposed on his way 
to Mans, with the intention of besieging it. 

Willoughby 's Journal closes with the following relation of the 
state of parties, and private machinations of the then great powers 
of Europe : •- 

" Olivarez, the Spanish ambassador at Rome, advertiseth to 
the King of Spain, that he hath diligented with the Pope, that no 
obsequy should be held for the late King of France ; that he 
hath solicited the Pope for his aid against the King that now is, 
which he hath promised ; that the Pope is sorry that he excom- 
municated the late King before his death, and that he would fain 
win the King if he could ; that he trusteth not the Pope in these 
causes, but esteemeth him a light unsure man. He judgeth the 
last King's death a m.ost happy thing for Spain, as that which 
maketh way to the King of Spain's title to add all France unto 
his monarchy. That he encourageth the Pope by all means 
against the King of France, there being (as he saith) twenty-six * 
princes that stand for the crown, one against another, and the 
people being distracted, (as they are,) the only leading of an 
army for Spain would win all sorts. 

repeated treachery ; and the Friar, " Pere Robert," had pubhcly, in his 
preaching, not only defended, but even extolled as meritorious, the murder 
of the late King Henri Trois, thereby exciting the multitude to insurrection. 
See Davila, p. 90. 
1 Query, sixteen. 



THE KING AT TOURS. 277 



" Mendoza laboureth to make De Mayenne (according to pro- 
mise) the King of Spain's Lieutenant, which the Leaguers them- 
selves hold dangerous, lest under colour of that lieutenancy of 
the King of Spain, who is now old, the Duke, being young, 
should after the King's death hold it to himself and the house of 
Lorraine \" 

In war there are always two sides of the picture ; and the fol- 
lowing letters will form a contrast, in their details of misery, to 
the bright accounts of military success recorded in the journals : 

" Willoughby to Walsingham. 

" Sir, — Immediately upon receipt of your letters, I dispatched 
one presently to the King, being myself sick in my quarter. He 
differed me until we met before Vendosme, and then till the 
town was won. How all the action passed, I have thought good 
to advertise you by a journal. After the winning of Vendosme, 
the King secretly and suddenly retired hither to Tours ^, whither 
I followed him. Here he gave me answer, he meant to bend all 
his forces tow^ards Normandy ; and as for the payment of the 
money, he knew not how long it would be before himself re- 
ceived it. But howsoever it goeth, I fear it very long (if ever) 

1 Willoughby's Journal, November 14, 1589. State Paper Office, France, 
1589. 

2 It is singular that Lord Willoughby does not mention the cause which 
thus carried the King in secret to Tours. There was assembled a Parha- 
ment devoted to his interests ; not a provincial assembly, but the loyal mem- 
bers of the chief assembly at Paris. There he was received at night, by 
torch-Ught, by the Cardinals of Vendosme and Lenoucourt, and many influ- 
ential persons ; and there, on the following day, Henry, in the presence of 
this Parliament, and seated on the royal throne, was solemnly acknowledged 
King of France. See Davila, p. 90. 



ere our soldiers get any pay or imprest, which hitherto we have 
not tasted of. The King is very poor, as you know, followed 
with diversities of humours, which our necessities to forage hath 
made very bitter and eager against us ; envy and loss of their 
own, increasing the ancient malice and pique of our nations ; yet 
(God be thanked) it hath not broken out to outrage. Our men 
having passed the children of Israel's march in the land of 
Egypt, (having worn themselves, their shoes, and their apparel,) 
cry out homewards, the best sort inclining exceedingly that way, 
and truly not without cause, for they live but with pain for their 
labour. Hereupon I moved the King that we might draw to- 
wards Normandy, to some port town, to supply ourselves of our 
necessities out of our own country, or to be transported home, as 
should like our mistress. Many of our men consumed with sick- 
ness, many hurt, whereof few (considering our continual march, 
with little means of carriage) are recovered ; yet never left we any 
behind, but carry them on the captain's horse, on mine own, and 
in my coach. Many of our arms broken and spoiled in service, 
some lost negligently by the soldiers going to forage, so that of 
arms also we have not the least want, whereof we cannot supply 
ourselves here. Some of our men (as in such actions) lost their 
lives honourably. To be short, generally our troops are much 
decayed. All these the King understanding, seemeth contented, 
desiring to carry us to the winning of Mans ; for whether it be 
surprise or approach, we have our part, though they will borrow 
the greatest part of the honour and profit from us. We have 
offered ourselves to attend him thither, and (as we have hitherto) 
to refuse no service he will employ us in. From Mans he hath 
thought good we should accompany the Duke Montpensier in 
some services, till we draw to the sea coast, where he is de- 



i 



DIVISION OF THE FORCES. 279 



sirous (though we transport the rest) that we leave some eight 
hundred behind ; wherein, I beseech you, Sir, let me know what 
is your pleasures at home. 

" I suppose this army will be dissolved : Mons. Chastillon ', 
from Mans, hath leave to go to Languedoc ; the Reitzers of 
Baron Oreanges ^ shall be contented and dispatched. The Switz- 
ers remaining are said shall be garrisoned to block up Nantz, 
where Duke Mercury ^ is, but it is doubted they are not so fit. 
I guess that they would be glad to have some of ours that way. 
As matters grow to more certainty, I will not fail to advertise 
you," &c. &c.* 

" Monsieur de Plaissis having conference with me for the 
King, communicated with me certain deciphered letters of Men- 
doza, wherein appeareth that he employed one David, in Eng- 
land, for a spy ; and one Richard Burghly, for transporting into 
these parts of necessaries for the wars, and namely artillery, for 
better refurnishing of Spain. 

" I had written the whole letter with mine own hand ; but so 
scribbled for haste, that I was fain to have it written over 
again." 

The miseries and wants of the army are described by the 
General, quite as strongly, in a letter of the same date to 
Burghley ' : 

" Your Lordship, I doubt not, conceives what it is to have 

marched so many miles, and so continually, as we have done, 

^ Colonel- General of the French infantry. 
2 Query, Creanges — for the original is hard to dec\-pher, 
5 The Due de Mercoeurs. 

^ Lord Willoughhy to Sir F. Walsingham, November 14, 1589. State 
Paper Office, France, 1589. 

^ State Paper Office, France, 1589. 



280 



WILLOUGHBY TO BURGHLEY. 



with SO great troops, in a strange place, at ill season of the year, 
with change of air and diet to bodies unacquainted therewith ; 
likewise, that in the accidents of war some die and some are 
hurt. Those that had money, means, or apparel, yea, saving 
your honour, even to shoes, have consumed all ; to get, borrow, 
or procure any thing here, there is no hope, for from the meanest 
to the King's person they seem all needy. To fill the hungry 
belly they are fain, after the licentious fashion of wars, to spoil ; 
which the French endure worst of all of our nation, because we 
are English. Hence grow great plaints of some particular per- 
sons ; but, God be thanked, hitherto no extreme outrages. The 
numbers that feed so, make them repine more ; for were our 
regiments as the French, (which are not passing four hundred for 
fifteen hundred,) the spoils would seem less. As it is, we and 
they both complain, and truly on both sides not without cause, 
but that war is a cause sufficient of all ill. The King, notwith- 
standing, desirous to be served with us, would fain hold some 
five hundred of us. 

" The Reisters of the Baron of Oranges it is thought shall be 
paid by them of Tours, which the Cardinals of Vendosme and 
Wemcour, as it is said, have charge to moyenne the same money. 

" For my own part, as the King may thank God that hath 
succeeded him and opened him so honourable a passage from 
Dieppe, with the gain of those provinces he hath won, so can I 
not guess that he can do any great matter this winter. In the 
mean season, rather than our people should miscarry with misery 
and naught doing, if it might seem good to your Lordships at 
home, under the colour of transporting us home, we might put 
for Spain, and attempt the burning of the King of Spain's ships ; 
or else, as we return, chop before Dunkirk, with the assistance of 



willoughby's journal. 281 



the forces already in the Low Countries, where, with suddenness, 
expedition, and diligence, we might run a fair adventure to be 
masters of it. I beseech you, pardon my presuming, which pro- 
ceeds of the best meaning. For, to conclude, no man living 
shall in all things, with all humbleness and readiness, obey com- 
mandments more readily than myself; especially also in any 
thing wherein I may do service to yourself, unto whom T have 
vowed my service. And so I leave your Lordship to God. 
From Tours, the 14th of November. 

" Your Lordship's most humble, 

*'P. WlLLOUGHBY. 

" If the King of France were so disposed, or had we means to 
follow him, I could in my poor reason wish, that being onward 
on his way, he might invade Spain by the kingdom of Navarre, 
and so entertain the Spaniard. It would spare his own country, 
and annoy his greatest enemy ; for Damnal is now no obstinate 
enemy, saving for his reliance from thence." 

By going back only two days from the date of this letter, we 
fall in with one of Willoughby's invaluable journals, which thus 
gives a minute detail of the active proceedings of the King's army 
at this interesting period, in a kind of warfare which must have 
especially suited the genius of the English General. 

" 12th of November (1589). After the winning of the city of 
Vendosme, the town of Le Verdin was immediately rendered to 
the King. 

" The King marching thence towards the city of Le Mans, 
came to Chasteau de Loyr, which was rendered unto him, and 
thence came before Le Mans, November 17. 

" On the 18th of November, the suburbs of St. Vincent 

o o 



were attempted by the King's forces, being not above two 
hundred, and the enemy being at least six hundred, driven 
thence with slaughter of four of their captains and about thirty 
soldiers ; which charge was so well performed, as they were 
ready, pesle mesle, to have entered the town, if they had been 
well seconded. 

'' 19th November. The English regiments were appointed to 
give upon the other side, and this afternoon passed the river ; 
many of them being carried over on horseback, behind the gen- 
tlemen that attended the King, and some behind the King him- 
self. 

" After they were passed the river, some of the English, con- 
ducted by the General, with some French harquebusiers of 
Mons. Trimville, being accompanied with Mons. Chastillon, 
entered the fauxbourg of Le Pre ; and Sir Thomas Wilford, in 
the mean time, with some other of the English, entered the faux- 
bourg of St. John, and dwelled there. 

" The same evening other inward fauxbourgs, with a post 
well fortified, (between the abbey of Le Pre and the fauxbourg 
taken in by Sir Thomas Wilford,) were attempted and taken in 
by the General and Monsieur de Gintry, with some English ; and 
the enemy being driven from thence, fired the houses. 

" 20th November. This day was bestowed in barricading the 
places won, and viewing places of most advantage, and fittest for 
approach. 

"21st November. The King planted his artillery to batter, 
and the Lord General of the English made float-bridges with 
tonnes ^ and lathers ^ to pass the river to the town wall, and to 



^ Probably tuns or barrels. 



2 Ladders. 



attempt it by scalado. And this evening took in mills standing 
upon the river, near the town wall, which the enemy held and 
dwelled upon them. 

" 22nd November. This morning the King began to batter 
with eight pieces, planted in three places, within one hundred 
and fifty paces of the wall. After eight hundred shot, and but 
small breach made, the French King being ready in arms to the 
assault, and the English on the other side to attempt the scalado, 
they of the town demanded parle ; whereunto the King was 
more willing to hearken, for that he had not above four hundred 
shot more. 

" There were in the town above two thousand soldiers, of 
whom there were noblemen and gentlemen one hundred and 
twenty. 

" The points of the composition were, that the noblemen and 
gentlemen should depart with their horses, arms, bag and bag- 
gage. 

" That the soldiers should depart with their arms, bag and 
baggage, their matches out, and their drums and ensigns left 
behind them. 

" That the King should have paid unto him five hundred 
thousand crowns, besides the taxes of houses. 

" They of the town spared not to give out that they would 
never have offered any composition, if they had not feared more 
some attempts of the English behind them, than the assault of 
the French at the breach. 

" After that Le Mans was thus taken in, the towns La Sable 
and La Val (whither the King proposed to go) rendered them- 
selves ; and since then also is rendered the government of young 

Lausac. 

o o 2 




" From thence we marched towards Alen^on, and our English 
regiments lodged in the fauxbourgs, December 3rd. 

" On Thursday, December 4th ^ at night, a strong ravelin, 
between the fauxbourgs and the town port, was won by the 
English, which, as well by those of the town as those on the 
King's part, (witnessed by Marshal Biron's letters,) was thought 
impregnable, there running by it a deep river, with a very swift 
current, and crusted about with a strong freestone wall, and not 
any way accessible, but by pulling down a draw-bridge over the 
said river. 

" The place was of such strength, as that there being some 
faction between Petimnes, who commanded the town, and the 
Governor of the castle ; Petimnes made reckoning of this for his 
last retreat to parlement with the King. 

" In this enterprise Sir Thomas Wilford was a chief actor ; 
and the engine wherewith the bridge was drawn down, was put 
on by Captain Lea, with some sailors appointed to him for that 
purpose. 

" The first that entered were Sir Thomas Wilford, Sir Thomas 
Baskerville, Captain Hemming, Captain Mosten, Mr. Christopher 
Heydon, with divers other captains and gentlemen. There were 
found upon the place about thirty-five of the enemy, which were 
all put to the sword. 

" In this service Mr. Pelham was shot in the belly, near to 
the Lord General, who, with divers other gentlemen, was ready 
to second the rest ; and Captain Helmbridge was shot through 
one of his legs. Before this town also Captain Swan was shot 
through the body, and Mr. Gunstone, who is since dead. 



1 Old Style. 



SUCCESS OF HENRY. 285 



" The same night the French attempted the walls on the other 
side by scalado, but were driven to retreat, and lost their lathers 
(ladders). 

" Immediately after the taking of this place, the town was 
rendered ; and it is thought that the castle will compound 
also\" 

Thus, from the taking of Vendosme, success spread her banner 
over Henry's little army. He pushed on to conquest, pene- 
trating through the whole of Normandy ; and whilst the glory of 
victory was freshly spread around him, and the fame more than 
half purchased by his English allies, awed his enemies into sub- 
mission, he neglected no opportunity of pursuing his advantages. 
At Laval, where he arrived before the siege of Alen9on, he 
found, according to a contemporary writer on the spot, " all 
things well disposed for his service, the cause being their weak- 
ness, and no other affection in duty, being in nature a town won- 
derfully affected to the League ^." 

The hardships and difficulties of the warfare were, however, 
by no means diminished by the success attending it. The King 
was still without resources ; and however anxious to do so, 
did not yet possess the means of satisfying the necessities of 
the English troops. Immediately before the siege of Alen^on, 
Willoughby (whose journal one felt unwilling to interrupt by 
any other matter) thus expresses himself on the subject to 
Burghley : 

" My honourable good Lord : No hardness of passage, nor the 

* Lord Willoughby 's Journal, from November 12th to December 4thj 
1589. State Paper Office, France, 1589. 

2 Letter of W. Lily to Sir F. Walsingham, Laval, "December 15th," or 
December 5th, 1589. State Paper Office, France, 1589. 



286 



CONQUESTS. 



incumbrance of my troubled estate full of necessities, in an ill 
season of the year, in a foul country, and continual journeying, 
can belett^ unto that affectionate duty your honourable courtesies 
hath tied me unto, but that I must upon all occasions present 
some remembrance of the same. For matters of state, I know 
you are better advertised than you can be from me ; for the wars 
I will not use the glory that some use ; for to say truth, though 
they be not admirable, yet be they equal with those which of late 
times I have heard of. Large provinces, strong towns, glorious 
and vaunting captains, subjected ; for which, next to God, her 
Majesty and you at home have not the least part of the honour. 
The other particularities of news I have thought good, as I did, 
to send them by a journal ; saving that Mons. de Guitry, a noble 
gentleman, a great soldier, and specially affected to our nation, is 
sent a dangerous passage, (God prosper him,) to succour the 
siege of Geneva w^ith his counsel and authority, for forces he 
can lead none ^" 

On the same day, Willoughby addressed another letter to Sir 
F. Walsingham, forwarding to him extracts of certain " prac- 
tices, deciphered, which the King had caused to be remitted to 
the English General, having received them from Monsieur du 
Plessis ; and laying before him also the condition of his troops, 
with the addition that he " will not hyperbolize, as the fashion 
amongst our profession commonly is ; yet, to say the truth, the 
adventures are more often and more honourable than in other 
parts I know ; and were our enemies more valiant, our con- 



* Hindrance. 

2 Lord Willoughby to Lord Burghley, St. John d'Assis, November 29, 
1589. State Paper Office, France, 1589. 




quests should be more honourable. From St. Jehan d'Assis, 

going to the siege of Alencon. 

" Yours to command, 

"P. Willoughby\" 

The value of the English services, though often passed over by 
the French chroniclers of this interesting struggle, was not unfelt 
or disregarded whilst it was actually pending ; and on the 4th of 
December, the French ambassadors. Monsieur de Beauvon ^ and 
Monsieur du Fresne ', forwarded the following offer to the 
Queen of England, of which the original is still extant : 

" The ambassadors, in debating upon the matter what assurance 
they would give in case her Majesty should be pleased to yield 
to the continuance of her subjects in the King's service, in the 
realm of France, declared, that although they had no commission 
to give any assurance in that behalf, yet they would take upon 
them (knowing the inconveniences that might follow, in case the 
English troops should be revoked) to pay one month's pay that is 
now passed, (deducting the allowance received from the King,) 
and to move his Majesty, that in case he shall not be able to 
satisfy them for the time to come after the second month, where- 
by they may grow discontented, then to dismiss them ; which 
offer, if it should please her Majesty in her goodness to accept of, 
they would then with all expedition advertise the King thereof; 
and, in the mean time, do beseech her Majesty, that she will order 
for the Lord Willoughby's stay '." 

1 Letter of Lord Willoughby to Sir F. Walsiugham, November 29, 1589. 
State Paper Office, France, 1589. 

2 .Jean de la Fin, Seigneur de Beauvoir la Node. 
^ Philippe de Canaye, Seigneur du Fresne. 

* Document in the State Paper Office, France, 1589 : " The offer made by 
the French King's ambassadors," &e. 



288 



THE QUEEN S SATISFACTION. 



Elizabeth seems to have been enchanted with the news that 
reached her of the gallant bearing of her subjects in France ; and 
on the 6th of December she despatched to Lord Willoughby the 
following letter : 

" By the Queen. 

" My good Peregrine, I bless God that your old prosperous 
success foUoweth your valiant acts ; and joy not a little that 
safety accompanieth your Inch. 

" Your loving Sovereign, 

" Elizabeth R.^ 

'' Right trusty and well-beloved, we greet you well. Albeit 
your abode and of our troops in that realm hath been longer than 
was first required, and by us meant ; whereof, as it seemeth, 
your yielding to divers services there hath been partly a cause, 
contrary to our expectation, to the King's purpose at the first 
declared, and to your own writing also hither, whose advertise- 
ments moved us to give order for certain of our ships to be sent 
for the safe conducting of you and of our subjects with you ; yet 
now perceiving the great contentment and satisfaction the King, 
our good brother, hath received by your good service, and of 
our companies under your charge ; whereby also such as hereto- 
fore might have conceived an opinion either of our weakness, or 
of the decay or want of courage, or other defects of our English 
nation, may see themselves much deceived, in that the contrary 
hath now well appeared in that country by so small a troop as is 
with you, to the great honour and reputation of us and our whole 

' This preamble is in the Queen's own hand. The rest is a copy, with a 
marginal note, by Mr. Windebank, her private secretary. State Paper 
Office, France, 1589. 



Elizabeth's acknowledgment. 289 

nation, and to the disappointing and daunting (as we hope) of our 
enemies. We have, upon request of our said good brother the 
King, declared by his ambassador here, accorded unto them, and 
hereby we signify unto you, that we are pleased you shall con- 
tinue your abode there, with the numbers under you, for this 
month longer, hoping the King will then be content to dismiss 
you with liberty, and his good favour, to return into this our 
realm, in case he shall not be able to keep them in pay, and 
satisfy them for any longer time ^ ; and that in the mean time he 
will be careful for the well using of you and them, so as you 
may neither want pay, nor suffer otherwise too many wants. 
And for that it is to our no small comfort to perceive the for- 
ward endeavours and valour, both of yourself and those under 
you, we are pleased not only to let you understand the same by 
these our own letters, with our thankful acceptation to yourself 
in particular ; but also we will and require you to signify so 
much, both to the whole company of soldiers there, and to such 
captains and gentlemen particularly, as you shall think most 
worthy thereof; who we trust will show the continuance of their 
valiant and willing minds, rather more than less, knowing the 
same shall be an increase of our comfort, of the honour of the 
whole realm and nation, and to their own more reputation. 

" You shall also say unto the King, that although we might 
have cause in respect of the wants which we heard our men en- 
dured sundry ways, to be unwilling that they should remain there 
any longer time ; yet, when we understood that he hoped to do 
himself the more good by the use of them, than otherwise he 



^ ^' These words," adds the Secretary, in a note, "^ the Queen willed me 
to add by interlining." 

P p 



290 



CONTINUED SUFFERING 



might perhaps look for, wanting them ; we were, we know not 
how, overcome and enchanted to yield thereunto. 

"Given under our signet at Richmond, the 6th day of Decem- 
ber, 1589, in the thirty-second year of our reign." 

It is painful, however, to know that all this brilliant outward 
success was constantly attended by the direst sickness and mi- 
sery. Captain Leveson, or Lewson \ captain of one of the 
Kentish companies, in a letter from Alen^on, dated the 11th of 
December, corroborates and enlarges on the sad picture of dis- 
tress which has been already presented to the reader. After 
mentioning the King's good fortune, and the great pleasure her 
Majesty's assistance by her troops had afforded him, and re- 
capitulating the conquests he had so rapidly made, he informs 
Sir Francis Walsingham of the struggles of the English soldiers 
against every kind of suffering. " Since our departure," he 
writes, " from Dieppe, I dare not avouch upon my credit, that 
we have lost in fight one hundred men ; but by death and sick- 
ness, procured through continual travail, cold, wetness of weather, 
ill diet, want of hose, shoes, and apparel, I dare boldly affirm 
that our companies are so weakened, that when as heretofore we 
marched some companies with eighty and ninety pikes, at this 
instant the best company hardly hath thirty pikes ; and in the 
same estate are our harquebusiers. That I may not be tedious, 
except the King do put us into some good garrisons, where our 
men may have rest, be succoured and relieved of their want, or 
that her Majesty do call us home, the tenth man will never 
return into England ^." 



1 Of Haling, in Kent. 

2 Mr. John Leveson to Sir F. Walsingham, Alen9on, December 11, 1589. 
State Paper Office, France, 1589. 



OF THE ENGLISH. 



291 



Lord Willoughby so strongly felt the miserable estate of his 
unfortunate men, — for unfortunate they were, though crowned 
^ with success, — that on the 14th he also laid their case before the 
Secretary, and before Lord Burghley : "I cannot," he writes to 
the latter, "but remember your Lordship of the misery of our 
troops, through want of the King's money, which we have not 
yet touched. The infected sickness of the country, the want of 
clothes, shoes, and arms, and, which is worst of all, being forced 
(to sustain life) to forage the country (through such griefs and 
repinings as those that have their cattle taken so from them give 
out against us), the ancient hatred of the Catholics worst French 
and our English is so far forth renewed — they waxing insolent 
through the decay of our troops, that some great inconvenience is 
to be feared. Hitherto God hath blessed us, so as the good King 
cannot but acknowledge himself much bound to her Majesty ; 
and our most ill-affected friends afford us the reputation of God's 
good success. If it might seem good to you at home to save so 
many men's lives, which this winter shall fight but against neces- 
sities and weather, to draw us home before the worst happen, 
while it is yet well, it may be you may draw good service of us. 
Otherwise, howsoever the best sort of us may rub out, and ap- 
pease, and qualify matters, yet I find your whole troops, men, 
and arms, will be consumed and broken ; for those which 'scape 
sickness and the enemy's sword, if but to feed themselves they 
be never so little from their companies, the country people set 
upon them with the help of gentlemen neighbours, and cut most 
of their throats. Thus referring the plain truth to your Lord- 
ship's judgment, humbly desiring you to be persuaded that no 
cause in the earth but the imminent peril of my charge makes me 

deliver you the same so rudely ; for otherwise, for my own affec- 

p p 2 



292 



TEMPORARY RELIEF. 



tion to the service of the Christian King, or the Christian cause, 
I would endure more than I mean to boast of, specially being 
commanded thereunto as I was. And so humbly commending 
my service unto you, I leave you to God. From Alen^on, the 
14th day of December, &c. &c. 

" I most humbly beseech your Lordship to think of us, that all 
the good and thankworthy offices her Majesty, by our service, 
hath done to the King may not, together also with her subjects, 
be lost. More I would write, but I refer it, hoping you will 
send for the remainder of us home \" 

These urgent remonstrances were at least productive of some 
exertion at home ; a supply of necessary apparel being forwarded 
to Lord Willoughby from the Lord Treasurer, amounting to the 
sum of £825, through a merchant of the name of Robert Brom- 
ley ^. This must have alleviated at least one kind of distress ; 
but the troops, to use their General's words, had long " warred 
with famine, penury, infection, and the enemy's sword ^." 

That the English forces should suffer greatly from exhaustion 
and fatigue, is not surprising, when one considers the rapid 
marches from place to place which, for nearly a month, they 
constantly undertook, only varied by vigorous action whenever 
opportunity offered. Another contemporary journal, forwarded 
to Lord Burghley by Mr. Fludd, the paymaster of the troops, 
corroborates the one already given, and adds some interesting 
particulars, as well as such commendations of the General's 
valour, as his own account could not be expected to furnish ; as. 



1 State Paper Office, France, 1589. 

^' Besides an adventure of £4^5 of their own, which he could make use of 
in case of pressing need. 

3 Letter in the State Paper Office. 



REDUCTION OF MANS, &C. 293 

for example, in detailing the occurrences of the siege of Mans, 
which was gained Wednesday the 19th of November, he adds : 
" Having our choice, either to lie in the open fields, or to win a 
quarter to bestow ourselves in, my Lord General with his own 
regiment, and Sir Thomas Wilford with his regiment of Kent, 
with some French with them, so valiantly set upon the two 
suburbs, that they drove the enemy from strength to strength, 
that in the end they won divers and sundry gates and barricadoes 
of great strength, and drove the enemies over the bridges into 
the town. And so were we lodged in their places, where we 
found some store of wine, and other victuals." 

He describes the town as standing " upon the river of Sarcre, 
which runs into the river of Loire, and that there are twenty-two 
parish churches within the same town ; and, likewise, that the 
four suburbs or fobertes of the same (being for the most part 
burned and spoiled) are much bigger, and were better housed 
than four times Rochester is." From thence he describes the 
King's march on the 23rd, to a village called Reulon, about two 
miles from Mans, where they rested five days ; and sums up, 
that it was in that space of time, that the towns of Sable, La- 
valle, Fresne, Cillie, and the castle of Mountforte, were yielded 
to the King, on hearing of his approach ; that they continued 
their route to Alen9on, through a village called St. John's Dasie, 
where, having rested a day, the King proceeded to Lavalle, 
appointing the English to meet him again at Alen^on, who did 
so on Wednesday the 3rd, having stopped on their way at 
Christopher, and at Songie. 

Fludd's account of the taking of Alen^on agrees exactly with 
that already given in Lord Willoughby's journal, with the addi- 
tion of three circumstances : the one, that on the winning of the 



294 



ALEN9ON YIELDED. 



fort near the gate, where thirty-four or thirty- five of the enemy 
were put to the sword, some few received mercy ; the second, 
that the darkness of the night prevented the regaining of an iron 
hook, which had been used to pull down the drawbridge, and 
which being mislaid in the confusion, impeded their attempts to 
gain a second ; and the third, the death (amongst others) of 
Lieutenant Bearing, of Sussex, who being shot in the head, did 
not long survive his wound. On the Saturday, Alen^on yielded : 
according to Mr. Lily, it rendered after "four cannons shot, 
balled with hay, to save their honours ; the truth was, our Eng- 
lish were scaling the walls \" It was not entered, however, 
until the Monday following, and the castle still held out. Here, 
where Willoughby's journal closes, Mr. Fludd takes up the 
relation of the incidents of the war. He goes on to narrate, 
that on the 11th of December the cannons were placed at night 
against the castle; on Saturday the 13th, they played. 

" On the said Saturday the King came to Alen^on, and again 
summoned the castle ; whereupon they desired a parley, which 
was granted ; and upon the morrow after, the same castle, by 
composition, was yielded unto the King. 

" Upon Sunday the 14th we marched from the said fobertes of 
Alen^on, through the town, to this village towards Cane ^, called 
Rosmaville, six miles. 

" It hath pleased the King to promise unto my Lord General, 
that himself would go with us to Cane, meaning (by the way) to 



^ W. Lily to Sir F. Walsingham, who in his postscript adds : " The news 
of the defeat of the Spanish fleet from the Indies, here is very grateful ; it 
carrieth the name of Drake, but the King telleth every man that it is Sir 
Martin Frobisher that came to him at Dieppe." 

^ Caen. 



take the towns of Argentine ^ and Fallicia ^ ; and that from Cane 
(finding our men, by long marches, evil diets, and this cold time 
of the year, to be much fallen) we should go into England. 

" My Lord General and the rest have so valiantly behaved 
themselves in this service, as 1 verily think the like (of so many 
men) was never done. We are nevertheless grown very hateful 
unto this nation, (the King and few others excepted,) and we are 
wonderfully envied of them, especially when any good service is 
by us done. They account us to be a company of Hugonots, a 
terrible and resolute people, wading through whatsoever we take 
in hand. And when they are forced to prick and set forward 
their own nation and Switzers unto services, so have they been 
very careful and diligent to stay and pull back our men there- 
from, as by continual experience in placing us on the strongest 
sides of the towns, and their often inhibition that we should not 
go forward, it well appeareth. 

" At our coming to Cane, which I hope will be within these ten 
or twelve days, I mean (and so my Lord General's pleasure is) 
I shall make full payment for her Majesty's time, according to 
your honour's former direction ; and in the mean time I have 
prested to the sick and poor soldiers, as much as was thought 
needful for them. So committing your Lordship to the Al- 
mighty's protection, I humbly take my leave. From Rosma- 
ville, forty miles from Cane, this Sunday, the 14th day of De- 
cember, 1589. 

" Your Lordship's in all at commandment, 

*' Thos. Fludd. 

" How much, therefore, his Majesty here is bound unto God 



^ Argentaii. 



2 Falaise. 



and her Majesty, without whom (as I take it) the least of these 
would not as yet have been had, it may easily appear \" 

About this time Lord Willoughby was annoyed by a " dan- 
gerous humour homewards," (under all the circumstances of 
distress scarcely to be wondered at,) which began to affect the 
troops, and which indeed was carried so far, that some even 
departed without license. " The King," he writes, " hath done 
me the honour to give order for the stay of them, if they shall 
be found towards the sea- coast ; and I beseech you. Sir, that if 
any of them come home, there may be some exemplary punish- 



1 Thomas Fludd, Paymaster of the Forces, to Lord Burghley. State 
Paper Office, France, 1589. 

" List of the toAvns and castles yielded to Hem-y, King of France, since 
our arrival at Dieppe : 

The town of Ewe. 
Yielded \ The town of Treiport. 

,The castle of Gamache. 

Won The suburbs of Paris. 

r The town and castle of Estampes. 

Yielded ^ The town of Mountoyer, 

tThe town of Jamville. 
Won . The town and castle of Vendosme. 

'The town and castle of Lav er dine. 

The town and castle of Chartie seu Loire, 

The town of Mants. 

The castle of Mountfort. 
Yielded < The town of Sable. 

The town of Lavalle. 

The town of Fresne. 

The town of Cillie. And 

^The town and castle of Alencon. December 14th." 



In this list of places, the orthography of the original letter is preserved. 



WILLOUGHBY TO THE COUNCIL. 297 

ment '." As to his own despatches, the General seemed to doubt 
their safe arrival in England ; observing to Lord Burghley, that 
the passages were still dangerous, and that probably he might 
"think it easier to hear from Venice than from him." With his 
usual straightforwardness he goes on to say, "Our copy of suc- 
cess is of late somewhat changed ; the enemy hath taken Bois 
St. Vincent, hath received the Spanish Red Cross instead of the 
White Lorraine Cross, hath besieged Pontoise, and summoned 
Pont I'Arche. I leave to divine what summer fruits may be, to 
better judgments than mine. For all this we leave not taking 
also. Domfront, a place of importance, was gained (by certain 
who first fell from the Baron Verni upon a private pique, and 
gave their faith to the King's party), and the Baron with his 
attendants slain by a few resolute persons of the party, who dis- 
sembled their griefs and purpose till their opportunity. From 
Souci, the 19th day of December, stylo Veteri^" 

Willoughby's next letter must be given nearly in full. It is 
addressed to the Lords of the Privy Council : 

" Most honourable Lords, — though this be the seventh packet 
that I have despatched out of France, yet am I sorry that I have 
not written so often as you might justly expect ; and my desire 
was to have yet more worthy things to write unto you. But God 
be thanked for such as it pleaseth his goodness to give ; and it is 
an excellent comfort that her Majesty vouchsafeth to esteem 
them to her comfort and honour, and that your honours are 
pleased to give them such allowance. If there be any thing 

^ Lord Willoughby to Sir F. Walsiiagham, Lussay, near Argenton, De- 
cember 18, 1589. State Paper Office, France, 1589. 

2 Lord Willoughby to Lord Burghley, Souci, December 19, 1589. State 
Paper Office, France, 1589. 

Q q 



298 



CONFERENCE WITH THE KING. 



thereby won to my country or self, I most lowly and willingly 
attribute it, next after God, to the excellent happiness of such a 
sovereign's service, and of your wise directions. Hereafter as 
our passages become more open, so shall my letters come more 
often. 

" Upon receipt of divers letters, by divers posts, all withip 
twenty-four hours, from her Majesty and your honours, first 
conferring which were last dated, and countermanding all the 
former, I presently dealt in those points with the King, who in 
the most honourable terms of due kindness acknowledging his 
infinite debt to her Majesty, whose favour (so was his princely 
language) he esteemeth as his crown of France ; he said to me, 
that he was contented to license all our men save eight hundred, 
which number, though it be small to that I wish to so worthy a 
King, yet my duty requireth to inform and pray your Lordships 
not to look that the residue will be many besides the sick, sore, 
and such as have lost their arms by former sickness or service. 
Having now informed thus much, I wish of God it may please 
her Majesty to send that direction which may most avail so good 
a prince and friend as he. He thinketh Cherbourg fittest for 
our embarkment, where, after I shall have order to ship the sol- 
diers, I shall also follow, except I be countermanded. 

" Hitherto (which I write for none other purpose but to obey 
your letters commanding me so to do) we have received no 
money at all in France ; otherwise the King's entertainment to- 
wards us, and namely to myself, is such as every wise and 
honest man must account most honourable. He wisheth that 
the money, which should be left for us in such hands as pleaseth 
her Majesty to appoint, should rather be sent over, that he might 
pay it to us himself; which thing (if I be not deceived) would 



REPORTS IN ENGLAND. 299 



breed in our men much honour, love, and readiness to the King's 
service another time ; whereas if they should depart or tarry 
without any pay in France, they would think it strange. 

" As for the rendering of Alen^cn Castle, the King's coming 
to Siez, his taking in of Argenton, his preparation to Falaise, the 
resolute surprise and assuring of Douphron, as also the enemy's 
getting of Boys de Vincens, his drawing down to Pontoise, his 
summons to Muellan and Pont I'Arche, &c. knowing your better 
advertisements from the King, I will leave to trouble your Lord- 
ships, and take my leave. From Luscey, near Argenton, De- 
cember 20, 1589. 

" Your Lordships most humbly to be commanded, 

" P. Wyllughby \" 

The active and eventful campaign still continued ; but some 
misunderstanding arose in consequence of reports reaching the 
King's ears, that great complaints had been made in England of 
the ill-usage of Elizabeth's troops. Henry appears to have felt 
much grief at such imputations ; but Lord Willoughby, however 
strongly he felt the distress and sufferings of his soldiers, uni- 
formly does justice to the kind intentions and treatment of the 
King and the better sort of the French, whatever misery had 
been experienced, and however cruelly the lower orders, and 
baser-minded part of the population, had taken advantage of 
every circumstance to persecute and even destroy the English ^. 

^ Lord Willougliby to the Privy Council. State Paper Office, France, 
1589. 

2 State Paper Office. Letter from Lord Willoughby to Sir F. Walsing- 
ham, dated Montgaron, on the way towards Falaise, the last of December, 
1589, stilo now. Its date in relation to the other letters is December 21. 

Q q 2 



300 



FLUDD TO LORD BURGHLEY. 



At home there appears to have existed some degree of hnpa- 
tient anxiety for news of the war in France ; but the difficulty 
of forwarding letters, and the danger to which the messengers 
from the English were exposed, furnished ample apology for any 
seeming neglect in this respect. Lord Burghley, it appears, com- 
plained greatly to Mr. Fludd, the paymaster of the troops, that 
he had sent him no account of such payments as he had made, 
nor could he comprehend on what warrant he still remained in 
France, considering that he was but appointed Paymaster for the 
sum received. He explained in a letter to the Lord Treasurer, 
that not having disbursed the full pay for the first month, but 
reserved some for cases of necessity, he had not deemed it neces- 
sary as yet to account for the money ; and as to the scarceness of 
his letters, and his continuance in France, he thus gives a picture 
of the difficulty of forwarding the first, and the impossibility of 
avoiding the second : 

" Since the second day of our march from Dieppe, until four 
days now last past, there came not any one from this army into 
England, or durst attempt the same, (the danger being so great,) 
other than Sir Roger Williams, and such as came with him, 
under the convoy of Duke Longueville and Monsieur Lanowe, 
of whose departure (they following the King most commonly five 
or six miles from our army) I had surely no knowledge, until it 
was too late ; and the foot posts two several times (who not- 
withstanding that they be French born, knowing the country, and 
dressing them in peasants' array,) yet do they pass in continual 
danger of their throats cutting. Experience hath overtaught us, 
that if any did but go a small distance from the army, they had 
commonly their throats cut, or at least they were well wounded, 
beaten, and stripped out of their armour and apparel. Many there 



\ 



SUFFERINGS OF THE ENGLISH. 301 

were of this army, sickness coming upon them, and finding the 
small comfort and relief that here was to be had, especially for 
those that were sick, would have given full largely to have been 
conveyed into England, but could not, although they would have 
given a thousand pounds. For my own part, although I like the 
company and service very well, yet there is no cause why I (or, 
as I think, any other) should be desirous here to continue any 
longer than needs must, for I verily believe that there was never 
(in the space) a longer, and more troublesome, and weary march 
and travail, than this war, and not altogether without danger. 
And sure reckoning I make, my Lord, that it hath and will cost 
me, before I shall arrive in England, at the least £200 more 
than shall be allowed me." 

It does not appear as if the difficulties of this warfare by the 
English on French ground had ever been fully appreciated. 
They being on foot, were under the direction, and therefore 
obliged to follow the lead of persons on horseback ; often not 
informed of their destination till eight o'clock in the morning ; 
obliged to prepare with all speed ; and, after a march of twelve 
or thirteen miles, found themselves often wet and wearied, unable 
(even the strongest among them) to establish themselves in their 
quarters before midnight ; and as to those who were unfortunate 
enough to be feeble by nature, or exhausted by the fatigues of 
the day, they were compelled to seek the dangerous repose 
aiforded by the damp soil of the woods and fields. The return 
of- morning, which sent forth the more robust to another toilsome 
march, saw these unhappy sufferers left to recover from the ill 
effects of their unwholesome bed, some few to follow in a few 
days, and many parted for ever from their comrades, to sicken 
and consume away on the spot where they left them. As to 



302 



WILLOUGHBY S SOLICITUDE 



those whose strength yet bore them on, the conclusion of their 
journey only made them the tenants of empty and filthy houses, 
into which being thrust without fire or provisions, many a man 
laid down in despair, on a whisp of straw, too languid, even if 
food was to be had, to rise to eat it. 

The pillage that they obtained was very uncertain : sometimes 
they got bullocks, hogs, or sheep, pullets, or bread ; but the 
meat they were generally obliged to eat fresh, which probably 
means raw, and without bread or drink ; and hardly ever could 
they enjoy the addition of salt to their meat, a greater privation 
than we are wont to consider it. 

Often as many as ten or twelve men in the day would hurl 
from them their arms and accoutrements, which had become too 
great a burthen for their exhausted strength ; and often were 
the officers obliged to drive over and destroy weapons and 
furniture much needed ; but which, as they could no longer 
sustain them, they were unwilling should fall into the enemy's 
hands. 

Mr. Fludd here witnesses to the extreme and solicitous care of 
Lord Willoughby for the troops under his charge. The allotted 
means of conveyance for goods, baggage, &c. were, he says, 
very insufficient for the wants of the army ; and when the Lord 
General observed the miserable and failing condition of the sick 
and wounded soldiers, he gave immediate and peremptory orders 
for throwing away and leaving all the articles of furniture which 
their carriages contained, and for supplying their place with the 
disabled men. His first step to enforce this command, was by 
setting the example in his own case, and discarding for the pur- 
pose his own possessions, of greater value than those of the rest. 
" If," he adds, " his Lordship's great care over them in this and 



FOR HIS TROOPS. 



303 



otherwise had not been, without question, many more had been 
lost and dead '." 

Amongst their greatest sufferings was the painful necessity of 
walking so many miles bare-footed. Rarely could they find the 
means of supplying the want of shoes, or the necessary allevi- 
ations for the wounded and sick. Of his own household, Mr. 
Fludd says, that only himself and three of his servants had been 
free from sufferings, "thanks to God;" the rest had been dan- 
gerously sick, and would have probably fallen victims, had they 
not been more carefully tended than was possible in the case of 
the poor soldiers. He adds rather quaintly, that it had been 
often wished that his Lordship, and the rest of the Lords, could 
for twenty-four hours have been with them, and " without hurt 
or disquietness" have witnessed their proceedings and service. 
" Touching apparel," he writes, " which I perceive by your 
Lordship's letter is meant to be provided and sent hither, surely, 
my Lord, I do not think that .the same will now be here wel- 
come ; for my Lord General hath provided so many of those 
kinds, as I think will serve the turn, which his Lordship freely 
meaneth to bestow upon them. But if the same about a month 
past could have been brought unto us where then we were, 
(a thing almost impossible,) then would they have been very 
well accounted of." He gives the order of their late march thus : 
On Wednesday the 17th, from Rosmaville to Tamville, where 
they rested till Friday, and then proceeded to St. Martin du 
Champ, near Argenton ; " but before our coming there," he con- 



* Mr. Fludd's letter to Lord Burghley, from Melaville, December 23, 
1589 ; State Paper Office. In a journal in the British Museum it is stated, 
that on this occasion Lord Willoughby gave up his own carriage for the use 
of the sick and disabled soldiers. 



304 



TREACHERY AT PONTOISE. 



tinues, " the town and castle were yielded unto the King, and 
therefore were we directed to march further towards Falaise, to a 
village called Lucye \ in all fourteen miles, leaving by the long 
march many of our men and carriages behind us, and there rested 
the Saturday. 

"Upon Sunday the 21st, from thence to Montgaron, two 
miles. 

" Upon Monday the 22nd, from thence to the suburbs of 
Faliza, eight miles ; and so presently from thence the same day 
to a village called Melaville, four miles, in all twelve miles ; 
where now we be, being twelve miles from Cane." 

News was brought the same day to the English, that the Duke 
de Mayenne was about to besiege Pontoise, and was very nearly 
gaining an advantage, through the treachery of a sergeant within 
the place, who promised to deliver it into his hands. Trusting 
to this assurance, the enemy set upon a company of Lansquenets, 
who guarded a barricado just without the town-gate, and having 
won it, drove them to fly towards t?ie gate, which was in charge 
of the traitor. On perceiving they were making towards it, he 
closed it, and left them outside, expecting to see them cut to 
pieces by the enemy ; but they manfully turned to bay, faced 
their pursuers, put them in turn to flight, and regained the bar- 
ricado. The wretched betrayer of his post and comrades was 
executed for his crime, 

" It is said," the letter continues, " that they of this town of 
Faliza have received the sacrament, promising that they will 
live and die together in defence of the town, and therefore likely 
they will hold it as long as they can ^.' 



2 »» 



^ Probably what Lord Willoughby calls Lussay. 

2 Fludd's letter to Lord Burghley, Melaville, December 23, 1589. 



State 



Lord Willoughby's next letter is a short one to the Privy 
Council, in which he states his belief, that with regard to the 
eight hundred or thousand men left behind, there will be scarcely 
that number to be found able and fit for service, the sick being 
many more than the whole, " the one not able to lead the other, 
and with their good wills few or none will tarry behind." This 
is dated from Mevillevin, December 23rd, 1589 '. 

The King seemed to be greatly distressed at the weakened 
condition of those active and valiant allies who had so effi- 
ciently assisted in paving his way to a throne. He grieved 
at the speeches delivered from the Queen to his ambassador, 
begging that her prime minister, Sir Francis Walsingham, might 
be informed, that if the English " had been somewhat neglected 
by his officers, he protested therein his grief, and sorrowed 
extremely that he could not look to all," He attributed their 
ill health and sufferings rather to abundance of meat than want 
of it ; saying, that often passing by their troops, he found them 
eating hogs' flesh and goats' half raw. He desired Mr. Lily to 
beseech the Queen's Majesty, through her secretary, that the 
money deposited with the Lord Treasurer for the payment of 
the troops, might be sent to him to distribute, that so he might 
win credit with them, and regain their good graces ^. 

Paper Office. Two accounts of payments accompany this letter : tlie second 
is a note of money due by the King, for the two months the English had 
served him, what had been paid, and what should have been. It seems the 
entertainments of the Lord General, chief officers, and colonels, were all 
referred to the pleasure of the French King. Fludd promises to write 
again, when the full pay for her Majesty's month shall be made. 

^ State Paper Office. 

2 William Lily to Sir F. Walsmgham, January 4, 1590. In accordance 
with the other letters, its date is December 25. 

R r 



306 . PREPARATIONS FOR DEPARTURE. 

The General's letter of the 28th of December makes known 
the royal change of purpose as to the detaining of some of the 
English troops : he thus expresses himself: 

'• My most honourable good Lords, — Since my last, the King 
hath, upon reasons to his wisdom known, changed his purpose 
touching the detaining of some eight hundred of our men ; and 
therefore I must also alter from the tenor of those letters. It 
pleaseth him now to dismiss us all, and for that end are we all, 
both sick and whole, by order of Mons. Montpensier and others 
of the King's council, come down toward a place near the sea- 
side, called Dives, within four or five leagues of Caen, and there 
to be victualled until we may be shipped. 

" It may therefore please your honours to think, that the 
sooner you send us shipping, the less charge shall we be either 
to the Queen or to the King, and the less burthen also to this 
country. In the mean time, according to some direction in your 
former letters, (since the King hath licensed us, and that the 
month mentioned in her Majesty's letters expireth apace,) I pur- 
pose not to keep them together to ship them all at once, but to 
take all good occasions of shipping, to dispatch the sick and hurt, 
by parties, as I may conveniently ; attending your pleasure for 
convoy to transport the gross of our troops, and so I most hum- 
bly take my leave. From Falaise, the 28th of December, 1589. 
" Your Lordship's most humbly to be commanded, 

" P. WiLLUGHBY. 

" It may please your Lordships ^, forasmuch as since my last 
letters the King hath dismissed us, and that there is no likelihood 

^ The Lords of the Privy Council, to whom Lord Willoughby addressed 
this letter from Falaise, December 28, 1589. State Paper Office, France, 
1589. 



SIEGE OF FALAISE. 307 



that the money can be brought over hither before our departure 
hence, your Lordships may please to continue your former reso- 
lution for the stay of it in England." 

Our next source of information is a letter of Mr. Fludd's to 
Lord Burghley, which relates some previous occurrences, and 
comes in most opportunely to complete the narrative of the siege 
of Falaise, where he, as well as Willoughby, was present, and 
where they took their leave of the King and his victorious army ; 
making their last personal exertions in his favour, although their 
troops were at some distance, on the eve of embarkation. The 
letter will not bear abridgement : 

" Upon Thursday the 25th, being our Christmas-day, we 
marched from Melavilla, from whence I last wrote unto your 
Lordships, clean backward towards the south-east, to a village 
called Pont St. Croye, four miles. 

" Note, that the cannon played still against the castle of 
Faliza, the said Christmas-even, Christmas-day, and more con- 
tinually St. Stephen's-day, being planted in three several places, 
until about one of the clock in the afternoon, (the St. Stephen's- 
day,) two breaches being made, (viz. the one in a tower, and the 
other in the main wall,) the French drew to the assault ; where, 
after a few shot in their time of approach towards the wall, they 
entered at the said breaches without any resistance ; and so the 
great brags which before they had made for the keeping of it 
came to nothing. The opinion of those of skill in our troops 
was, that if but twenty good soldiers indeed had been within it, 
(as there were many bad,) that they could never have won it by 
those breaches, being truly so small and ill to get into, that they 
were driven by one and one to climb up a wall, to one of the 

breaches, of six or seven feet high, and to creep in at a narrow 

R r 2 



308 



SURRENDER OF FALAISE. 



door in the other ; to defend both the which, no doubt one good 
man within had been worth a hundred without. But so it was 
with them, that they run away at the first ; in such sort, that the 
French so entering, they went along the wall to the town-gate 
without resistance, and opened the same, and let in their fellows. 
In the time of their battery in the said tower, battered a good 
distance above the breach, notwithstanding the beating and 
shaking of the cannons, a soldier did continually play out at a 
loop-hole with a musket upon us, until at the last, upon the shot 
of five cannons together, the whole side of the tower fell down, 
and he the said soldier withal, who, amongst the stones, tumbled 
out into the castle ditch, and there was taken alive, and carried 
unto the King, who sent him to prison ; at which service my 
Lord General, with myself, and many other of our English gen- 
tlemen (as waiting upon the King) were present ; but our troops 
weie seven miles off, and not called unto it. 

" The Count Brissac took him to pece of the castle \ which he 
held until the morrow morning, and then yielded himself to the 
mercy of the King ; and it is thought that the King will pardon 
his life. 

"The 29th of this December, my Lord General and myself 
came to Caen, to provide shipping for the sick men, which we 
find many, and the shipping very scant, and wonderful charge- 
able. The troops do march after ; and, as I think, will this 
night be at Dyve, a town upon the sea, ten miles from hence, 
towards Newhaven, where it is appointed we shall remain until 
we may be embarked ; and so now our whole stay is for shipping 
and wafters, a thing also needful, for those of Newhaven, and 
other enemies' towns, do here much harm. 

' Perhaps a part of the castle. 



THE KING S FAREWELL. 



309 



" T shall not, if it may please your Lordship, have money 
enough now to make up the full pay for her Majesty's time, and 
to pay for transportation : your Lordship's direction therefore I 
desire. 

" The King, perceiving our troops to be become weak, hath 
licensed us to depart ; but since my last writing we have not 
received any thing, but once a little bread. 

'' The King's army are now about Lyseures, to besiege the 
same, and it is thought it will either yield, or will not long hold 
out ; for since the winning of Faliza, the town of Domfrout is 
yielded to the King ; and so I think the most of the small towns 
will do. So I beseech the Almighty to keep and bless your 
Lordship. From Cane, the last of December, 1589 '. 

" Your Lordship's ever to command, 

" Thos. Fludd." 

Thus closed the winter of 1589. On the 15th of January 
following, we find Willoughby with the King before Honfleur^, 
which also fell into the hands of the latter ^ ; and Henry having 
commenced the year 1590 as gloriously as he closed the pre- 
ceding one of 1589, dismissed his English allies with high, and 
certainly well-deserved commendations, bestowing upon the 
General (Willoughby) a diamond ring, as a token of his regard, 
which he on his part so highly valued, that on his death-bed he 
left it to his second son. Peregrine, charging him, on his blessing, 
to transmit it to his heirs also. It is said that Henry afterwards 



^ Letter in tlie State Paper Office from Mr. Flvidd to Lord Burghley, 
Caen, December 31, 1589. France, 1589. 

2 Sir J. Burgli to Sir F. Walsingham. State Paper Office, France, 1590. 

3 Camden's Elizabeth, p. 436. 



310 



DEATH OF DRURY. 



regretted their departure, and more especially when he learnt 
that the King of Spain entertained a secret design on the crown 
of France. But their numbers had been greatly thinned ; suffer- 
ings, sickness, and privation had laid many in the grave ; and 
Sir William Drury, who had gained a reputation for valour and 
accomplishments, threw away the precious gifts bestowed upon 
him, and lost his life in a duel, prompted by vanity, on a trifling 
quarrel for precedency ^ (or, as he terms it, a just quarrel) with 
Sir John Burgh. It is to Elizabeth's credit that she discoun- 
tenanced such revengeful proceedings, and that the survivor felt 
that he had brought himself into disgrace with her, — a part of 
the transaction which apparently weighed more heavily upon his 
mind, than the fact of the unhappy consequences of the duel. 
With this feeling he writes to Sir F. Walsingham, praying him to 
stand his friend on the occasion, and "join his aid with the 
King's letter effectually written in his behalf to her Majesty, that 
he may not incur her displeasure through this mischance, espe- 
cially being provoked by the extreme disgrace put upon him" by 
Sir William Drury. " I will not," he continues, " seek to better 
my cause by my own report, but will refer it to the relation of 
all indifferent men that know how deeply my credit was in- 
terested. My Lord Willoughby at his coming over can satisfy 
your honour for the justness of my quarrel." As to the fatal 
termination of the affair, he despatches the account of it in these 
words : " Having received an intolerable disgrace by Sir William 
Drury before Paris, which in respect of the King's presence I 
forebore to such revenge as the injury required, I since called 
him into the field, (having deferred it till the English troops 



Camden's Elizabeth, p. 437. 



WILLOUGHBY S RETURN TO ENGLAND. 



311 



were licensed to depart by the King,) where it was my chance to 
hurt him, of which he is dead\" 

It appears that the wound Sir William Drury received was in 
his arm, that mortification followed in the hand, and that con- 
sequently the surgeons found it necessary to amputate the limb, 
but to no purpose ; the progress of the mischief could not be 
arrested, and on the 18th he died, recommending his wife and 
children to the care of the Queen ^. 

This affair was resented by Elizabeth, not only towards Sir 
John Burgh, but also towards Lord Willoughby, who would 
probably have been unable to prevent it, supposing he had pos- 
sessed the inclination. She was displeased that it was not taken 
up, and brought before the French King, who excused himself 
to her by the plea of ignorance on the subject ; and she appears 
to have deferred the reception of Willoughby into her presence 
for a few days after his return from that brilliant campaign, 
which had been as successful to the arms of her ally, as glorious 
to her own. However, she appointed the 21st of January for 
giving him audience at Lambeth ^ ; Sir John Burgh being de- 
tained still by the French King till her further pleasure should 
be known ; and as Willoughby 's connexion with that monarch 
was dissolved on his return to England, so must we also now 



' Sir J. Burgh to Sir F. Walsingham, Dyve, January 15, 1590. State 
Paper Office, France, 1590. This is the last letter in the French corre- 
spondence in the State Paper Office which mentions Lord Willoughby. 

2 Letter from WiUiam Lily to Sir F. Walsiugham, January 19, 1590. 
State Paper Office. 

3 Letter of Thomas Windebank, the Queen's private secretary, to 
Sir F. Walsingham, January 21, 1589-90. State Paper Office, Domestic, 
1590. 



take our leave of Henry's rising fortunes, to follow still the path 
of him whose biography we have undertaken to sketch. 




1:^3: 



The condition of Willoughby's private fortune and estate had 
not been improved by his labours in the Queen's service ; nor 
could he for some time obtain a hearing or an adjustment of such 
pecuniary matters as was needful for his own satisfaction, and the 
final arrangeraient of the account between him and his sovereign. 

1 Taken from a MS. in the library at Canterbury, as borne in 1590, with 
the exception of the motto, which in the original runs thus : " Natura vado, 
virtute volo." 



WILLOUGHBY TO BURGHLEY. 313 

111 health and pecuniary difficulties, which the necessities of the 
late campaign had brought upon him, (necessities provided for 
from his own private purse,) induced him to adopt the resolution 
of repairing to Germany for a time ; but before he took this step, 
he addressed, in the month of June, the following letter to Lord 
Burghley : 

"My most honourable good Lord, — Having this night been 
very ill, and unfit to wait upon you, I thought by these to move 
your Lordship, that now at last I may have an orderly hearing of 
my accounts, when the muster-master, and such as can charge 
me, may be present ; and though I be the first of my place that 
in foreign wars was ever checked, and Sir John Norries paid and 
bared, yet, that even in that check I may have but that justice 
which the poorest captain hath, which is that I may be present, 
and the reasons shown by the books. This done, and all stinging 
exceptions cleared, I will leave wholly to her Majesty, and next 
to your Lordship, my cause to be proceeded in as you please, 
humbly beseeching it may be heard some day this week ; for I 
am purposed to go into the country to settle my state, (having 
long attended a conclusion,) finding I must take some new course 
to satisfy my creditors' expectation, hitherto fed with this hope 
of my account, or else I shall be sure to ruin me and mine. And 
before I would enter into it, or acquaint her Majesty therewith, 
my love and duty to you makes me presume to impart it. I 
have purposed to the payment of my debts to appoint the best 
part of my land ; towards the maintenance of my wife, children, 
family annuities, reparation of houses, and such like, one other 
part ; and, lastly, a little bare portion to maintain myself pri- 
vately in Germany, if it may be with her Majesty's leave, having 

chosen this as the only means not to be chargeable to her Ma- 

s s 



jesty, and helpful to restore my state, and satisfy the world from 
those in England, that seeing my state subject to law by reason, 
and to loss by ray folly, for having made myself an unprofitable 
soldier, might else contemn and scorn my life and time spent. 
And thus craving pardon to have troubled your Lordship, I 
humbly take my leave. From my chamber, this xv*^ day of 
June, 1590. 

" Your Lordship's most humble, 

" P. WiLLUGHBY \" 



And in this sick chamber we still find our hero in the ensuing 
November, where also he had the satisfaction of receiving a kind 
and flattering letter from the prince he had lately served in the 
field, and who on despatching the Vicomte de Turenne to Eng- 
land, as he expresses it, " vers la Royne Madame, ma bonne 
soeur," would not, he says, miss the opportunity " de temoigner 
la souvenance que j'ay, . . . de votre affection et bonne volonte 
en mon endroit ; . . . et I'estime que je fais de votre vertu et 
valeur ; ... en attendant que je vous en puisse donner quelque 
preuve de plus de contentement." To this letter, signed 
"Henry," and dated from the " Camp de Gisors, le xx™^ jour 
de Octobre, 1590," and which concludes with " cependant je 
prie (Dieu) Mons. de Wiliby, vous avoir en sa saincte et digne 
garde," Lord Willoughby returned a grateful answer, expressive 
of the pleasure he received from his " lettres gratieuses et fa- 
vorables," but regretting that they had found him " a sa maison 
saisi d'une si grande maladie," that he had been unable to see 

^ Letter in the British Museum, Burghley Papers, Lansdowne MSS., No. 
63, art. 66. Elizabeth seems to have acted towards Lord Willoughby with 
her usual policy of impoverishing her nobles. 



Monsieur de Turenne ; and adding, " Quand Dieu et ma mai- 
tresse permettront, je puis sincerement dire, que votre Majeste 
me trouvera toujours en toute humilite, obeissance et fidelite, 
entre les plus prets a vous servir quand a la volonte, le desirant 
plutot signaler que d'en parler." 

Monsieur de Turenne appears to have well understood how 
thoroughly Willoughby's services were appreciated by the French 
monarch ; for in a letter written during his stay in London, after 
thanking him for his "courtorsie" towards himself, he assures 
him, — 

" Vous ne s^auriez faire service au prince du monde qui le 
reconnoit mieux envers vous que lui, comme je pense que vous- 
meme avez reconnu en votre dernier voyage que vous fites en 
France. . . . Je vous baise les mains et demeure 

" Votre humble a vous servir, 

"Turenne \ 

"A Londres, ce . . . . Decembre." 

Four years after, we find him at the Spa in Lukeland, in Ger- 
many, for the recovery of his health, to which place the Queen 
addressed the annexed letter, condoling with him on his indis- 
position, while she seemed to miss his services ^. An invasion 
from Spain was then hourly expected ; and it was no small com- 
pliment to Peregrine, that while she urged him to be careful of 

^ For these three letters see Appendix, articles NN., 00., and PP., for 
the copies taken by the Hon. Charles Bertie Percy, from the MSS. at 
Grimsthorpe. 

2 Lloyd's " Statesmen and Favourites since the Reformation," and Col- 
lins's Peerage. 

s s 2 



himself, and acknowledged the merit of his former actions, she 
was evidently desirous of seeing him again enrolled amongst the 
active supporters of her power and sovereignty. The letter 
itself is best ushered in by the same quaint phrases which Fuller 
uses in introducing it, who writes thus : " Here I will insert a 
letter of Queen Elizabeth, written to him with her own hand ; 
and, reader, deal in matters of this nature, as when venison is 
set before thee — eat the one, and read the other ; never asking 
whence they came, though I profess I came honestly by a copy 
thereof, from the original." 

The Queen's letter. 

" Good Peregrine, — We are not a little glad that by your 
journey you have received such good fruit of amendment, spe- 
cially when we consider how great vexation it is to a mind 
devoted to actions of honour, to be restrained, by any indisposi- 
tion of body, from following those courses which, to your own 
reputation, and to our great satisfaction, you have formerly per- 
formed ; and therefore, as we must now (out of our desire of 
your well-doing) chiefly enjoin you to an especial care to in- 
crease and continue your health, which must give life to all your 
best endeavours, so we must next as seriously recommend to you 
this consideration, — that in these times, when there is such ap- 
pearance that we shall have the trial of our best noble subjects, 
you seem not to affect the satisfaction of your own private con- 
venience, beyond the attending of that which nature and duty 
challengeth from all persons of your quality and profession. For 
if necessarily (your health of body being recovered) you should 
eloign yourself by residence there from those employments, 
whereof we shall have too good store, you shall not so much 



WILLOUGHBY IN ITALY. 317 



amend the state of your body, as happily you shall call in ques- 
tion the reputation of your mind and judgment, even in the 
opinion of those that love you, and are best acquainted with 
your disposition and discretion. Interpret this our plainness, we 
pray you, to our extraordinary estimation of you ; for it is not 
common with us to deal so freely with many ; and believe that 
you shall ever find us both ready and willing, on all occasions, to 
yield you the fruits of that interest which your endeavours have 
purchased for you in our opinion and estimation ; not doubting 
but when you have, with moderation, made trial of the success 
of these your sundry peregrinations, you will find as great com- 
fort to spend your days at home, as heretofore you have done, of 
which we do wish you full measure, howsoever you shall have 
cause of abode or return. Given under our signet, at our manor 
of Nonsuch, the 7th of October, 1594, in the thirty-seventh year 
of our reign. 

"Your most loving Sovereign, 

"E. R." 

Our next intelligence of Willoughby is gathered from his cor- 
respondence with the Earl of Essex, in which he mentions his 
abode in Italy, and his earnest desire to be again employed in 
the service of his royal mistress, Elizabeth. The object of his 
ambition appears to have been the government of Berwick-upon- 
Tweed, — that remarkable frontier town, which, standing on the 
confines of England and Scotland, was at this time, and indeed 
had been for a long period, in the possession of the English. 
His letter, containing his " suit," runs thus : 

" My very good Lord, — I have written sundry letters unto 
your Lordship out of Italy, and the while I had health and 




strength to do it, but I fear some of them came (not) to your 
hand. . . . 

*' I have been here at Sterade this sixteen weeks, wind- 
bound, and many times driven back from sea, not without some 
dangers, the French ships of our consort being cast away ; and 
here we are like to lie, God knows how long. Wherefore I be- 
seech your Lordship, in the meanwhile, that now in this time 
when other means faileth me, and the only occasion is offered to 
recompense my former time and services, your Lordship would 
perform for me those honourable and loving parts, which it hath 
pleased you by your word and letters to assure me of, and 
whereon I have with all hope and confidence specially builded. 
My suit is not great nor new ; I mean the government of Ber- 
wick, which her Majesty must bestow on one ; and whether I 
be as sufficient as another for that charge, I refer to you, the 
(most) competent judge we have in martial causes, of any that 
serve her Majesty and state. It is not unknown unto your 
Lordship, what sums of money I should receive, disbursed by 
me ; beside, a great deal more was put to account, which in my 
conceit should further me at least to a good turn before another 
that hath not done so much, especially as it may come with such 
ease from her Majesty. If your Lordship now then cannot pre- 
vail, I shall a thousand times wish water to have buried my 
bones in Cadis malis^, under your Lordship, than return home 
unto England so ill-regarded ; and so commending it, which since 
I knew you hath been and ever shall be most devoted unto you, 
I humbly take my leave from aboard ship, having been there 



' An allusion to the late expedition to Cadiz under Lord Essex. The 
shore before Cadiz was called Cadis mails. See Sir Francis Vere's Com- 
mentaries, folio, 1657, p. 27, and the map at p. 24. 



this month, and mended, which piitteth me in good hope I shall 
be able yet once again to wait on you some honourable voyage 
of (your Lordship), &c. &cJ 



1 J) 



Again, on the 12th of September, Willoughby writes thus : 

" Most noble Lord, — Your Lordship's paper of congratulations 
was to me letters patent of better content than all the world, save 
God and her Majesty, could yield me. That you would at this 
time further hear from me, can be no other but that song I have 
always sung of my uttermost devotions to you, which though I 
have not roared out like a lion, nor warbled like a nightingale, 
yet have I, with the solitary swallow, chirped on the house-top, 
after one constant and selfsame manner. I have partly under- 
stood, beyond sea, a new English secret, that no lame man is 
able to serve his prince, though he have never so much strength 
of mind, but one only creature in this world ; but I hope it is 
permitted that we honour and love our prince, as well as such 
rarest cripple, and may live to reap after so true and worthy 
member of our state, as you the worthiest, which God may make 
appear, who wonderfully overwhelmeth the highest buildings, 
and raiseth up the lowest mole-hills — to whose almighty power I 
commend you ^ 

'' I have written to your Lordship in other letters, long before 
this, to renew my suit for Berwick, but I am afraid Saturn's 
revolutions this year, of whom all the Dutch almanacks write, 

' Letter evidently to Essex, signed by Lord Willoughby, and dated 
August 28, 1596 ; from a copy of the one at Grimsthorpe. 

2 Letter to the Earl of Essex, signed by Lord Willoughby, and dated 
Knatsale, September 12, 1596 ; from a copy of the letter at Grimsthorpe. 
For other letters addressed to the Earl of Essex by Lord Willoughby, see 
Appendix, art. QQ. 



portendeth much mischief to men of war, will thrust me out of 
the twelfth house, of her Majesty's gift, if your Lordship's worthy 
hand draw me not in." 

Willoughby's "suit" was granted, but not immediately^; for 
in November, 1596, we find him at Willoughby House, writing 
to Lord Essex, on an appointment made void by the death of a 
tenant and friend of his. Sir John Buck, the guardianship of 
whose child (for the sake of its father) he solicits in these words : 

" My Lo. — Your poor soldier, and my good friend. Sir John 
Buck, departing this night to a better life, hath recommended to 
me the care of his child and wife. I beseech your Lp. therefore, 
be a means to her Majesty, that I may have the guardianship of 
the child, the better to discharge that duty. Sir John, and all 
his kindred, for the most part, are my tenants. He was some- 
times my servant ; and as I was not unmindful to help him to that 
he had, so truly would I be to continue that good to his son, and 
loth to see my fruits dispersed to a worse friend's hand. Noble 
Lord, let me rely upon you herein ; and thus sick in my bed I 

rest. 

" Yr. Lo. most humble, 

"P. Wyllughby^. 

" I pray your good Lo. take special order there light no trou- 
ble on Buck's children for the prisoners." 

It is not till 1597-8, that we find Willoughby at last deputed 
by the Queen to the governorship of Berwick, and the warden- 
ship of the Eastern March on the borders of England and Scot- 
land, — a theatre of action of a very different nature from those 

1 See Appendix, art. RR. ^ From the copy in Mr. Percy's collection. 



MEETING AT CARLISLE. 



321 



where we have already followed him. Since her accession, Eliza- 
beth had fortified and improved the town ; and her attention had 
been likewise turned to it by the confused and ill-ordered state 
of affairs, which had disturbed the tranquillity of the frontier, 
and made Berwick and its neighbourhood a scene of perpetual 
feud ; causing also a difference of opinion between her and the 
King of Scots. In 1596, the common danger that threatened 
both Elizabeth and James, in the shape of a second projected 
invasion from Spain, occasioned a kind of bond between them, 
with many expressions of regard and friendship. This, how- 
ever, was shortly disturbed by the unruly conduct of the Scottish 
chiefs. The deputy of the laird of Buccleugh \ keeper or warden 
of Liddlesdale, met by appointment the deputy of the English 
Lord Scroope, for the adjustment of border affairs ; the former 
bringing with him a certain William Armstrong, a noted thief. 
The subjects of Elizabeth broke the truce before the expiration 
of the period, by forcibly carrying off this Armstrong, and con- 
veying him to Carlisle. However well-deserved this might be, 
it was clearly a breach of the convention on the part of the Eng- 
lish, and, as such, resisted by the bold spirit of Buccleugh. His 
complaints to Lord Scroope, and Sir R. Bowes, English ambas- 
sador at the court of Scotland, being disregarded. King James 
himself at length addressed Elizabeth on the subject, and de- 
manded restitution of the prisoner. But the patience of Buc- 
cleugh was already exhausted ; and there appearing no likelihood 
of redress, he marched to Carlisle, entered it by assault, and 
carried off the captive (Armstrong) in triumph. It was now the 
turn of the Queen of England to complain ; and James, though 



' Border History of England and Scotland, bj' George Ridpath, p. 687- 

T t 



at first he attempted some defence of his subject's conduct, yet 
in the end deemed it advisable to pacify her indignation, by the 
temporary imprisonment of the offender, who was afterwards 
sent to England, but shortly liberated \ 

These events, and a few more which still remained to be de- 
tailed, form a kind of preamble to this portion of Lord Wil- 
loughby's history ; and the knowledge of them is absolutely 
necessary to the comprehension of his next series of letters, after 
he entered on the government of Berwick. In the previous year 
(1596) a meeting was held at Carlisle, in order to restore peace, 
and redress injuries on either side. In the mean while there 
was no cessation of outrages ; and the violence of the Scots was 
especially offensive to Elizabeth, because she had conceived 
great displeasure against Buccleugh for his late conduct, and he 
was one of the chief ringleaders. Sir Robert Ker, of Cesford, 
who had the command of one of the districts, actually led, or at 
least encouraged, the banditti in those parts against the English, 
and became involved in disputes with Sir Robert Carey, deputy- 
warden of the East Marches. 

All these provocations were sorely felt by Elizabeth, who, it 
must be acknowledged, had a very quick perception of wrong 
done to any portion of her people ; and when the commissioners 
for both kingdoms met at Carlisle, and were on the point of 
signing their treaty, she ordered Sir William Bowes, on her 
part, to remonstrate with the King on the marauding propensities 
of his subjects; adding, that though removed from her personal 



^ Ridpath's Border History, which in this narrative is quoted from p. 687 
to p. 701. The author mentions the new Governor as "Peregrine Bertie, 
Lord Willoughby, a nobleman who had borne high commands, and acquired 
great miUtary fame in France and Flanders." 



DISPLEASURE. 323 



inspection, her border territories were not the less dear to her, 
nor her resolution to protect them from inroad and annoyance 
less firm and unalterable. It is creditable to the treaty in ques- 
tion, that at the head of its commissioners, on each side, stood the 
name of a prelate ; and that its first article provided, that each 
sovereign should be addressed on the subjects of repairing the 
number of decayed churches, which disgraced the country, and 
of establishing a settled ministry, &c. 

The Queen of England gave special orders to those who acted 
as wardens under her authority, to be ready to fulfil, on their 
side, those articles of the treaty that required the delivering up 
of fugitive offenders, and of pledges. This they were quite pre- 
pared to do ; but, on the part of Scotland, Buccleugh and Ker 
were reluctant in performing it ; and having powerful friends at 
the court of their native prince, they were for a while supported 
by their influence, till Elizabeth's indignation being excited, she 
even threatened her royal kinsman with the withdrawal of her 
ambassador. James was thus roused to assert his authority to 
quell the turbulent spirit of these unruly chiefs ; and at his de- 
sire the Queen was to empower her ambassador to fix a day for 
the delivery of the pledges, according to the late treaty ; when 
he promised either to give up his, or the wardens through whose 
dilatoriness he might be withheld from so doing \ Neither Buc- 
cleugh nor Ker having produced theirs, they were obliged to 
enter themselves prisoners at Berwick, on which occasion an 
almost romantic incident took place. It has been before ob- 
served, that Sir R. Ker and Carey had been especially opposed 
to each other during the whole of these affairs, and must have 

1 Ridpath's Border History. 
T t 2 



324 



APPOINTMENT OF WILLOUGHBY. 



had frequent opportunities of forming a right estimate of each 
other's character. Notwithstanding, however, this feud, when 
Ker was by Lord Home conveyed to Berwick, he selected as his 
guardian the very Sir Robert Carey, who up to that moment had 
stood in the light of his foe. So generous a confidence was as 
generously repaid ; and when subsequently Carey was warden of 
the Middle March, and Ker, having entered his pledges, had been 
restored to his government, the friendship thus commenced was 
continued, greatly to the advantage of the neighbourhood, as they 
concurred in endeavours to preserve peace and bring offenders 
to justice. In the mean while, however, although Buccleugh 
soon regained his liberty, Sir R. Ker was conducted prisoner to 
York. 

In the month of February, 1597-8 \ Sir Robert Carey received 
an intimation from Lord Burghley, that Lord Willoughby was 
appointed Governor of Berwick, and Warden of the East March, 
where till then he had commanded ; and by his answer he seems 
a little sore on the subject, although no offence was intended. It 
appears that since the beginning of Elizabeth's reign it had been 
customary to unite these two offices in one person^. The last 
commander at Berwick had been Lord Hunsdon, and at his 
death, in order to fill the vacancy till Lord Willoughby was ap- 
pointed, his second son, John Carey, had occupied the post as 
locum tenens, so that both brothers were removed by the recent 
nomination. The Warden, Sir R. Carey, prays to have leave 
to come up to London before the arrival of Lord Willoughby, 
" which," says he, " will not be so great a discredit to me to 

* Letter of Sir Robert Carey to Lord BurgUey, Berwick, February 27, 
1597-8. State Paper Office, Borders, vol. 66. 
2 Ridpath's History of the Borders. 



WILLOUGHBY TO THE EAUL MARSHAL. 325 

resign up to him being at court, as it will be if I should yield it 
up in the country." He at first declined the command of the 
Middle March, which had been given him, as too hard a task ; 
but, after a short residence in England, changed that purpose, 
and returned to the borders, to undertake the charge in the room 
of Lord Eure. 

His brother, John Carey, was still more annoyed at the change 
of affairs : alluding to the appointments of Lord Willoughby, Sir 
Robert Carey, and Sir William Bowes \ he writes : " Poor I, 
being in my own opinion a very old officer, am clean forgotten, 
neither having any new office, nor hearing whether I shall hold- 
my old office or no ; but I trust, seeing that her Majesty's hand 
is in, in giving of these three patents, she will, by your honour- 
able good favour and furtherance, think me now worthy of my 
patent for the continuance of the marshalship of this town." The 
person whom he addresses is the aged Lord Burghley, now 
rapidly approaching the term of his mortal career. This letter 
was written early in the spring of the year in which Burghley 
died ^ ; and the writer laments and condoles with him on the 
sickness he was then suffering from, the precursor of his last. 
Willoughby's letter to the Earl Marshal gives his opinion of 
Carey's fitness thus : 

*' My most honourable good Lord, — I here send your Lord- 
ship herewith Sir Robert Carew's letter with these, that your 
Lordship maj?^ see what he desires. I am of his opinion for his 
brother John Carew, your Lordship may please to nominate him 

^ Sir W. Bowes, who had been commissioner for Border affairs and 
causes, was appointed treasurer of Berwick. 

2 Letter from John Carey, Esq., Governor of Berwick, to Lord Burghley, 
Berwick, March 7, 1597-8. State Paper Office, Borders, vol. 66. 



for the West Marche : he is rich, much beloved by the soldiery 
and gentry, and very wise. For these commendations my Lo. 
Chamberlain yesterday attributed to him more than his brother ; 
adding further, that John Carew should not yield the marshal- 
ship of Berwick to never a man in England, neither was there 
any better able to serve in it. I am bound to believe his Lord- 
ship, but leave the matter notwithstanding to your disposing, and 
discerning my Lord's affections. Yet I think there is much dif- 
ference in their serviceable devotions to your Lordship, as is 
best known to yourself," &c.* 

In the same month he writes : 

" My most honourable good Lord, — I hereby thank you for 
my horse : if I had my supporters, I would have waited on you 
in your chamber, though I confess I had rather do you any other 
service that my life and power can perform, than to be seen car- 
ried in the court. I most humbly beseech you, therefore, not to 
repute me negligent in not observing you as your noble true 
favours deserve, but to believe that I am for ever unfeignedly 
bound, and so will remain. 

" Your Lordship's most humble to command to 

my uttermost, 

" P. Wyllughby ^" 

On the 23rd of this month, Willoughby was at Grimsthorpe, 
but preparing to go down to his new charge, as appears from the 
following communication with the Lord Marshal : 

1 Lord Willoughby to the Earl Marshal, March, 1597 ; from Mr. Percy's 
copy. 

2 Lord Willoughby to the Lord Marshal, March, 1597 ; from Mr. Percy's 
collection. 



" I perceive by Sir Robarte Caries return, that there is no 
let to those letters directed to him for resigning his wardency, 
wherein I cannot but think myself much bound to your Lord- 
ship, assuring myself it was your honourable deed. Till I come 
thither, I shall have little matter worthy your Lordship's present- 
ing. And to take away sinister objections to myself, which may 
cause her Majesty now in the beginning to be worse served, 
I could wish your Lordship would procure Sir William Bowes 
his despatch to assist me there, together with honest Mr. Selby ; 
for I suppose all will be little enough for the secret mysteries of 
the managing that present government, and the defects. I 
would I were so happy as to have some captain of your Lord- 
ship's, whom I might make a president of good example to the 
rest, specially for your discipline of training. Little Garret, bred 
with me, and now your servant, if you so pleased, would do, 

well recommended from your Lordship, to some captain's 

place with us, and would serve the turn exceeding well ; and 
with such a second to Captain Yachsley, we might make a pretty 
nursery for the old lady of Berwick \' 



1 M 



Lord Willoughby would seem by the following letter, appa- 
rently written just before he went down to his command in 
1597-8, to be conscious that sickness and infirmity of body 
might possibly have affected his temper, and to have foreseen 
that this defect, joined to the hard task he should find there, 
might require support and countenance from the government at 
home : 

*' My most honourable good Lord," he writes, " To conclude is 

1 " Grimsthorpe, y^ 23rd of March, 1597. My Lord Marshall." From 
Mr. Percy's collection. 



328 



PREPARING FOR HIS NEW CHARGE. 



better than to begin, which makes me desire to end rather worthy 
of your honourable favours, than to enlarge how happy begin- 
nings I have had by them. But finding my breath short, and my 
course hardly continued without an expert hand to manage me, 
I must now more than ever humbly desire your Lordship, that 
I may rely upon you : a Psalm-book would protect me for a 
private man well enough ; but in these employments I had need 
of an Alexander to cut off the curious knot of exceptions which 
may be taken against me ; and since your Lordship is our Gene- 
ral Alexander, give me leave as one particular of that number 
to appeal so to you in the state I am. Your Lordship likewise 
knoweth wise men trust more where love ever was sound without 
any vent, than where it is pieced up again ; and let me use this, 
my good Lord, for another argument to fortify myself by your 
noble protection. If when I was here much was said of my 
indisposition, when I am so many miles more off, it will be many 
ways more increased, and so my insufficiency the more believed. 
I doubt not but I shall be accused to be of a, very variable and 
changeable humour ; and it will be argued, that I esteem not my 
friends, because I shall perhaps not serve some of their servants' 
expectations, and also change old soldiers for new — an ill work, 
if the sense were as the words; but, as Solomon says of age, 
' non senilis etas, sed intaminata vita,' so may value, experience, 
and diligence be applied to soldiery, and not easy-spent years, 
without knowledge or hazard. It will easily be believed that I 
am testy and cholerick, for it is part of my nature, and increased 
by my infirmity ; but if strong wits with such sickness commit 
errors, I hope mine shall not be damned for heresies, since I will 
not dwell on them ; but that I fear most is, if I do not some 
things in a fervent heat, as others' passions who may be strong 



ARRIVAL AT BERWICK. 



329 



would have it, they will straight conclude that through age and 
sickness I am become cold and phlegmatic. This to your Lord- 
ship is not unknown, who in your worthy enterprises hath found 
the inconveniency of ill-mixed humours and such venomous 
sickness, and therefore out of your experience can better judge 
your friendly servant, than they that never put their finger in the 
fire, or know the element but by hearsay. Your Lordship, by 
place, by law, by right, by my love, is my judge," &c.* 

The seclusion in which Willoughby's life had been lately 
passed, is thus described by himself in a letter, probably to Lord 
Essex, and dated April 12, 1597 : 

" If your Lordship shall think my poor self fit for your ser- 
vice, command me when and how is most agreeable to you ; the 
whilst serving God and her Majesty, I will amoinde my Condon's 
life with hene vixit qui bene habuit, and rest, &c. &c. 

"P. WILLUGHBY^" 

The writer arrived at his new station of command on the 28th 
of April, and was by no means satisfied with the condition of the 
troops now placed under his charge. His letter to the Privy 
Council states his opinion of their want of order, as it must have 
struck the observation of the more mature soldier. " The next 
day," he writes, after his arrival, " I assembled her Majesty's 
council residing here, acquainted them with the substance of 



1 Letter from Lord Willoughby, dated April, 1598, without address. 
From a copy by the Hon. Charles Bertie Percy, of a letter in the possession 
of the late Lady Willoughby at Grimsthorpe. 

2 From a copy of the letter at Grimsthorpe. 

u u 



those instructions her Majesty and your Lordships had by letters 
directed to follow ; and forasmuch as till the next day, being 
Sunday, I could not, as the establishment enjoined me, properly 
take my oath, I forbare to proceed. That solemnised on Mon- 
day following, it was thought meet that Mr. John Carey, who 
held the government the last half-year, to our Lady-day, and 
was to sign bills to that time, should call the musters with my 
consent, and at which I was also present. But though they hold 
them musters, for my own part I should rather hold them at 
bare view. The horsemen apart, and the foot by their com- 
panies, passed by, and every man answered to his name. But 
for the particular inquiry, both according to the establishment, 
whether they were Scots, L'ish, Northumberland, Westmoreland, 
or Bishoprick, prohibited by the establishment ; nor, as is used in 
like cases, no private marks taken of the men's personages, no 
books shown of the clerks, by deposition when the entries and 
discharge were made ; and of what continuance they had, or 
were like to be in those bands ; likewise no note taken of the 
colour of their horses and marks, very necessary on this frontier, 
lest at the muster providing them good, they should sell those 
away to their neighbour Scots, and provide worse against the 
next. In other nations it is therefore provided, that none may 
sell or make away his horse, once allowed good by muster, with- 
out the chiefs assent. That which I advertise for horse and 
foot bands, I may affirm for the pensioners, gunners, and ar- 
tisans." 

Besides this want of order, defects of discipline prevailed : the 
soldiers made over their duties to others. " The gunners were 
some of them very poor souls ; but the miserablest of all was the 
forty- second foot, which they call scoriers, which poor wretches 



performing in unseemly weakness those duties of war soldiers 
should do, may aptly be termed drudges, and the soldiers truants. 
For the artillery and munition, I perceive your Lordships, at the 
instance of Mr. Musgrave, Master here of the Ordnance, directed 
a commission to certain gentlemen here, for taking the view 
thereof, whereby though I conceive I might sufficiently pass over 
that point of instruction to them, yet I shall not be negligent, 
since I am here present, to satisfy my oath and duty ; wherein I 
cannot but complain, in general terms, with the Master of the 
Ordnance, for the great wants of such necessary munition, he 
affirmeth we are (in any attempt) dangerously to sustain. To 
pass from men, munitions, and victuals, to walls and fortifica- 
tions, I humbly desire pardon to deliver my conceit upon the 
best works, which may rather be termed beginnings. There 
hath been infinite cost bestowed, and nothing perfected ; and yet 
the whole might have in a manner been strong with half the 
charge. The walls are only built a little above the cordons, 
scanted in their scarping, but in appearance strong enough ; the 
rampart to be raised thereon would be paces thick scarping 
inwards three, besides the height from the wall's foot to the top 
thirty feet, with the parapet ; whereas yet there is nothing raised 
from the walls, and the whole height but twenty-one and a half 
feet, whereby it is impossible for any of the garrison to answer 
alarms, and man the walls ; but by the advantages of the 
grounds without, they are all open for the enemies to play upon, 
and the enemies without have many defences and shelters from 
us. All our ordnance planted upon the unfinished bulwarks, 
may in four hours, by an enemy that was strong, be dismounted, 
having no merlons, cannoniers, nor gabions ; the ditch unper- 

fected, the counterscarp altogether undone, the rampart raised 

u u 2 



like a sea-bank, without scarp, pomario, or ground for a re- 
trenchment ; no cavalier about the whole fortification raised, and 
yet hills round about to command it. The ports but indifferently 
flanked, and but meanly (for strength) placed. The room for 
the powder and munition placed so as it is subject to a shot of a 
field-piece from without the walls; and by treachery within, the 
walls to be easily set on fire, and subject to harm. This is the 
state of the new fortification ; the old, much worse subject to 
surprise. And lest my ignorance may not satisfy your Lord- 
ships in a matter of such importance, I would wish some perfect 
skilful man might be sent hither to survey the same more arti- 
ficially ; in the mean season I guess the charge will not be so 
great as it may appear to be, the works are all to be finished of 
earth and turf for the most part ; and two or three practised 
peasants of the Low Countries to lay them, would do more ser- 
vice than twenty master masons at such high rates by the day ; 
and for labourers, soldiers, burghers, and all sorts should help. 
I fear me I may be thought impertinently tedious, and nicely 
double diligent. I am privy with what sincere serviceable devo- 
tion I do it — bound by bounty, allegiance, and oath ; and if my 
zeal in these make me fail, I hope to be excused, and shall 
learn to mend those faults sooner than a fault in war, where I 
have learned, non licet his peccare, &c.^ " 

This letter offers a very complete picture of the condition of 
Willoughby's charge at Berwick. It is satisfactory to find by 
his next despatch to Sir Robert Cecil, the son of Lord Burghley, 
(who now appears to fill the gap occasioned by the dangerous 
illness of the aged Lord Treasurer, and was at that time Secre- 

' Lord Willoughby to the Privy Council, Berwick, May 2, 1598. State 
I'aper Office, Borders, vol. 66. 



tary of State,) that the Queen was well pleased with his pro- 
ceedings ; for he thanks him for being the " instrument of so 
comfortable news, as her Majesty's gracious allowance of his 
proceedings;" adding, that "he had sent Sesford's pledges^ to 
be conveyed to York ; but could wish that her Majesty's sub- 
jects distressed by them, had rather had good security for the 
satisfaction of their wrongs, than these beggarly fellows im- 
prisoned^." 

On the 28th of June, his communication with the Privy 
Council, which respects the preparation and entertainment of 
forty horsemen in Sir Robert Carey's wardenship of the Middle 
March, is marked by the feeble and uncertain signature that 
closes it, a proof that his constitutional infirmity of body was now 
renewing its painful attacks ^. This wardenship of the Middle 
March was still disturbed by the turbulent spirit of the Scotch. 
Carey had a dispute with Ker of Ferniherst, about the cutting 
down of timber in the English forests, which was afterwards 
carried off into Scotland. A feud succeeded, in which several 
Scotch gentlemen were taken prisoners ; but the hospitable re- 
ception afforded them by Carey, and the conciliating spirit in 
which he softened a matter in dispute on the subject of hunting, 
gained him even the goodwill of those sportsmen, whose unlimited 
encroachments on the English borders had forced him to interfere 
with their pastime. When the rights on either side had, through 
his means, been thoroughly established, he even occasionally 
joined with them in hunting excursions. 

^ Sir Robert Ker. 

2 Lord Willoughby to Sir R. Cecil, Berwick, June 19, 1598. State Paper 
Office, Borders, vol. G6. 

^ Letter from Lord Willougliby to the Privy Council. State Paper Ouice, 
Borders, vol. 66. 



334 



WILLOUGHBY TO CECIL. 



Lord Willoughby's correspondence still continued with Sir 
Robert Cecil, towards whom he appears to have experienced 
some degree of the esteem and affection which it is evident he 
bore to his father, Lord Burghley\ On the 6th of August, he 
laments the news he has received, that the latter is still far from 
well, " which makes me," says he, " forbear, as I was wont to 
trouble him with my letters concerning this government, whereof 
1 find his Lordship hath ever had, and hath a most remarkable 
care ; and knowing how worthily you second and succeed such 
a father, I have chosen to advertise the same to you, as proper 
both for your affection and place." He then proceeds to explain 
the condition of the establishment at Berwick : " The last mus- 
ters I presented were in another form than the accustomed, show- 
ing the age and country of every person ; the first to signify his 
ability and time of service, the other to discover such as were 
here of other provinces, prohibited by the establishment. Now 
this abbreviate I send you, will show the wants of every com- 
pany, whether it be in the chief men's hands that have compa- 
nies, or of ordinary captains. But hitherto hath not been mus- 
tered such horse and foot, as are allowed to her Majesty's council 
here, believing the best, that such should need no examination. 
For my part 1 have neither horse nor foot allowed me, but a few 
servants, which are in view every day ; and so I report me, 
having erected to my proper charge a guard of musquetiers of 
them, not used by any governor that I can hear of before. The 
horse companies mutiny much against their constables, and are 
disordered for want of a leader or captain. If it pleased that 
they were committed to my charge, as in such governments is 

1 Lord WiUoughby to Sir Robert Cecil, Berwick, July 26, 1598. State 
Paper Office, Borders, vol. 67- 



DEATH OF BURGHLEY. 335 



usually accustomed, and myself hath had the like, as the marshal 
here hath now a band of foot, I would not doubt to have them in 
better order for her Majesty's service than they be, which is too 
bad, as partly may appear by their complaints 1 formerly sent 
up. As it is, the command of the town is very bare and charge- 
able ; the best things plucked from it, and times so changed as 
all things are as dear or dearer rated than in London \" 

At the time when Willoughby thus addressed the son of the 
friend whom he had valued ever since the days of his own youth, 
he was not aware that this friend had already passed from the 
cares and anxieties of government, and for ever closed his eyes 
on all human affairs. On the 4th of August, two days before 
the date of this letter, the aged statesman had breathed his last, 
leaving it for future ages to decide, amongst conflicting evidence, 
what his real character may have been. As far as we are here 
concerned with it, connected as he has been throughout this 
history with its hero, Willoughby — appealed to by his mother as 
the guide of his youth, and always addressed by him with the 
affection and consideration due to a kind and well-known friend, 
we cannot but pause one moment at his tomb, as if some degree 
of sympathy were called for, and as if it were natural to pay 
at least a parting tribute to his name. The regrets of Lord Wil- 
loughby are touchingly added, in his own hand, to the next letter 
we find of his dictation. He begins by saying, that he has " ac- 
quainted the Secretary (Sir Robert Cecil) with certain disorders 
amongst the horsemen of my garrison, which I heretofore made 
known to my Lord Treasurer in his lifetime, and had hope of the 
redress of the same if his Lordship had lived ; but now having 



1 Letter from Lord Willoughby to Sir R. Cecil, Berwick, August 6, 1598. 
State Paper Office, Borders, vol. 67- 



solicited Mr. Secretary of the same, I am to request your fur- 
therance therein, that you ' will, as much as you may, be mindful 
to forward the same." The addition in his own hand runs thus, 
in a very melancholy tone and spirit : " Many things I wrote to 
my Lord, which now I think will be all forgotten. Such is my 
fortune, to win friends hardly, and lose them at their best ^. If 
Mr. Secretary take not to heart this town, as my Lord his father 
did, the government will be very unhappy^." 

A troublesome government it certainly was ; and in the opi- 
nion of Lord Scroope, who has been already mentioned, Lord 
Willoughby proved himself " wise and honourable." The same 
authority tells us, that the Governor of Berwick had had '' many 
and great conferences with Sir Robert Carr " (Cessford). The 
latter was undoubtedly in favour with the King of Scotland, and 
had been advanced to a seat at the council-board, rather to the 
displeasure of Elizabeth. Lord Scroope adds, that he had been 
informed by persons inward, or intimate with Willoughby, that 
he " intended to procure Sir Robert to be his intelligencer in 
Scotland ; but a friend of good credit hath written to me out of 
Scotland, that Sir Robert retaileth all to the King, whereat both 

^ His correspondent is Mr. Lock. 

2 His desponding expressions remind one of those touching lines : 
" Oh ! ever thus, since childhood's hour, 
I've seen my fondest hopes decay ; 
I never loved a tree or flower, 

But 'twas the first to fade away. 
I never nursed a dear gazelle, 

To glad me with its soft black eye. 
But when it came to know me well. 

And love me, it was sure to die." — Moore. 
^ Lord Willoughby to Mr. Lock, Berwick, August 11, 1598. State Paper 
Office, Borders, vol. 67. 



make good sport \" Willoughby's own character of Cesford is 
amusing enough: " Sesford," he tells Sir Robert Cecil, "is an 
under devil, enriched by his plumes plucked, a shrewd nag, well 
encouraged, will scratch before he will lose his apple ;" and 
classing him with another powerful person (Bothwell), who, he 
says, " no doubt, may do mischief," for " he is much beloved 
here," he adds, " 1 will not motion to put brimstone to such 
Pluto-like spirits." These characters form part of one of his 
official communications with Sir Robert Cecil, in which he lays 
before him the condition of the place for " men, victual, and 
munition." . . " For men," he says, " we shall do well enough, if 
we have them good enough ; not such as have been intruded by 
corruption, or as may be corrupted by vicinity of nation. For 
munition, I have sent the state thereof twice to my Lord Mar- 
shal, Master of the Ordnance, our store not only being immediate 
for ourselves, but, as it were, the spring to nourish all the sol- 
diery betwixt Carlisle, Newcastle, the islands, and this place, 
which at this time is but meanly provided, having but nine lasts 
of powder for town and country, &c. For the victuals, to deal 
plainly, we are put in good hope, and I believe very well of the 
surveyor; I must say unto you for discharge of my duty, where 
we should have six months, we have scarce a month ; hardly half 
a month of some special kinds. . . . For myself only I will an- 
swer without a large protestation, but an Almighty Witness, that 
I desire not to live so much as to die, in giving my life, devotion, 
and entire service to her Majesty, to whom it is so due, and for 
whom I do so breathe it^." 

^ Letter from Lord Scroope to Sir R. Cecil, September 5, 1598. State 
Paper Office, Borders, vol. 67- 

2 Letter of Lord Willoughby to Sir Robert Cecil, Berwick, January 1, 
1598-9. State Paper Office, Borders, vol. 68. 

X X 



This letter was written on the 1st of January, 1598-9, in 
which year a misunderstanding arose between Scotland and Eng- 
land, owing to a false report that James had tampered with the 
Pope, and even made overtures to him in writing. This report 
arose from a fraud of the King's secretary, Elphinstone ; but at 
the moment he could only oppose the most solemn protestations 
to the charges made by the English envoy, Sir William Bowes \ 
and had no proofs of his innocence. On his part, James was 
offended at the seizure and conveyance to Berwick of one Ash- 
field, an Englishman, whom it pleased him to regard with favour, 
and who had cunningly passed into Scotland, by imposing on the 
English warden, being at the time obnoxious to the laws of his 
Own country. Having obtained, on certain conditions, a license 
from Lord Willoughby to enter Scotland, he next ventured to 
appear at court, and secured a good reception there, by bringing 
with him some hunting horses for the Scotch monarch ^. On 
learning, however, what was his real conduct and character. Lord 
Willoughby, as Governor of Berwick, and therefore responsible 
for the said fugitive, despatched a small party of five or six 
horse, under the command of his cousin Guevara, to apprehend 
him if possible ; and it appears from other accounts, that some 
persons belonging to the English embassy, either with or without 
the concurrence of the Ambassador, joined with them to decoy 
him to Leith, where having placed him in a coach, in a state of 
intoxication, they conveyed him to Berwick, and delivered him 
into the custody of the Governor. James, on hearing where he 
was detained, despatched a messenger requiring the restitution of 
his guest ; a concession Willoughby considered himself bound in 



^ Ridpath's Border History. 



2 Ibid. 



AFFAIR OF ASHFIELD. 



339 



duty to his own royal mistress to refuse, at least till she should 
signify it as her pleasure ; but such an order never arrived from 
England. 

Lord Willoughby's own explanation of the affair to Sir Robert 
Cecil is given in the following letter : " Sir, — You may please 
to understand, that having intelligence by my Lord Ambassador, 
and one Waynman, my follower, that one Ashfield, a gentleman 
of Buckinghamshire, had lewdly and suspiciously behaved him- 
self in Scotland, practising many foul and treasonable matters, as 
it seemeth ; I employed thither to Edinburgh a gentleman, my 
cousin Guevara, with five or six horse, for the apprehending of 
him, who behaved himself so faithfully and discreetly therein, 
as winning him into a coach to disport himself, they there sur- 
prised him and brought him hither. I had, by the way, a pin- 
nace of my own lying at Preston, near Leith, for the shipping of 
him, and relieving of them if they had been hotly pursued ; but 
it was so well carried, that although there were at that time 
many Scottish gentlemen upon the sands, they discovered not the 
purpose. Now he is here, I would fain know her Majesty's 
pleasure, what should be done with him, being newly at this 
instant arrived. I have taken no examination of him ; but I 
know that both my Lord Ambassador and Waynman can say 
much against him ; and if my Lord Ambassador, as I doubt not 
he will, can seize his papers at Edinburgh, there will be much 
certainty therein discovered. Thus much with the first oppor- 
tunity I thought to advertise, and hope that my Lord Ambassa- 
dor will from Scotland advertise you the rest, which as yet I am 
ignorant of myself, &c. &c "P. Willoughby\" 



» Lord WUloughby to Sir R. Cecil, Wednesday, June 13, 1599. State 

Paper Office, Borders, vol. 68. 

X x 2 



340 



KING JAMES S LETTER. 



The King considered himself personally aggrieved in this 
matter, and despatched his own complaint to him in these 
words : 

" Trusty and well-belovit Cousing, We greet you hartlie well. 
Having considerit the indignitie done to Ws, be taking away 
violentlie out of the hart of our country and in sight of our chief 
palais and eyes of our counsale, ane Inglis gentilman callit Ash- 
feild, being under our protectioun, and recommendit by your 
letter to ane of our Privie Counsale, without any interpellatioun 
maid to Ws for his delyvery in cace he had bene ane ofFt^ndour, 
and how the same is done be some of your speciall friendis and 
servandis ; We cannot marvel aneuch thairof, seeing we hopit at 
your handis als great respect to our honour as at any subjectis of 
England of your rank, specialie sence your experience in Princis 
service, within and without your countray, has techit yow suffi- 
cientlie quhat apertenis to the honour of a Prince. And gif sa 
be that by any warrand from your Soverane the same have been 
attempted, We requyre friendly to be acquented thairwith ; or 
gif upoun any particuler offense done to yow be the said Ashfield, 
you have upoun ane suddane passioun interessed Ws sa heichlie 
in honour. We crave the same by restitutioun of him, to be spe- 
delie reparit. Willing alwayis you to wey how farre sic ane 
attempt twiches Ws, our honour and estate ; and as none ellis of 
your ranke can better juge of that poinct of honour, and of nane 
of your ranke we rest more assured of that lauchfull dewty 
quhilk apertenis, We expect with this bearer sic satisfactioun as 
will repaire our honour, and relieve you of that suspicioun of 
misregard of your dewty towards Ws, quhairin we cannot well 
beleve that ye will fayle, willing yow alwayis to assure you that 
it is a mater, quhilk without spedie reparation We will nocht 



WILLOUGHBY S REPLY. 341 



pass over. And sa resting to your answer, we comit you to the 
Almichty. From Leeth, this 14th of June, 1599 \ 

" (Signed) Your loving freinde, 

" James R. 
" To our trusty and well-belovit Cousing, the Lord Willoughbie, 
Lord Governor of Berwick." 

The royal letter elicited this spirited and straightforward reply 
from Lord Willoughby, who owns and defends, on the score of 
duty, his apprehension of the offender ^, and never disclaims his 
share in any part of the transaction, except the device by which 
he was entrapped, and to which at the same time he attaches 
rather praise than blame. He writes thus : 

" Most mighty, most renowned, and most excellent King, — 
I am charged with a grievous indignity done to your Majesty, by 
the violent taking away an English subject, licensed by me to go 
into Scotland, and (as it is said) under your Majesty's pro- 
tection ; that likewise he had a letter of mine to one of your 
Privy Council in his commendations. To each of these points, 
with your Majesty's pardon, I answer truly and faithfully this. 
My intendment is free from the first, my devoir and duty bound 
me to the other, besides the overture that his frank acknowiedo;- 
ment of no protection from your Majesty gave me, which he is 
ready to avow. For writing to any councillor of your Majesty's 



^ Letter in the State Paper Office, Borders, vol. 68, in its original ortho- 
graphy. 

^ His particular offence is not mentioned, but it appears he was suspected 
of having been employed, as a confidential agent of James's in England, to 
glean secret information relative to his succession to the throne of that king- 
dom.— Ty tier's Scotland, p. 264. 



in his behalf, I neither remember nor acknowledge it, but assure 
myself it is merely mistaken. I hope your Majesty is persuaded 
there must be an informer and an accuser of Ashfield's proceed- 
ings, before I can take notice thereof, which I am bound to do 
as a public officer, wherein the value and credit of the person is 
to be taken hold of by me, as a subject and a servant to her 
Majesty. I speak not concerning any, but only to point out the 
truth, since many times it pleaseth such great princes as both 
your Majesties to make known their pleasures, according to the 
dependencies of the necessary services, good or evil, unto their 
avail, by such under ministers as they think well of, with virtue 
and power, like themselves. Likewise your Majesty may please 
to consider, that having here a public charge from her Majesty, 
it is concluded in the same, I should in private and particular 
occasions serve her no less than in the general ; and it would be 
imputed unto me for a great negligence and want, if I should be 
found slack in the performance of any particularity, as might 
concern her Majesty's service in these parts, being called to ac- 
count. Where it is alleged he came in with my license, it is true ; 
so much the more it concerns me. He behaved himself well by 
my leave ; he gave his hand and word to return within three 
days ; promised after, very shortly to come ; writ me, lastly, he 
would presently make his repair. According to all these I sent, 
not violently, (as is enforced,) but quietly ; neither with armour, 
arms, nor ambushments, nor stirring, nor emotion in your Ma- 
jesty's estate, nor discontentment to the party, who acknowledgeth 
himself, before, then, and since, very willing to come. These 
things, I hope, made known to your Majesty, (as I appeal from 
you ill-informed, to yourself well-informed,) will fully settle your 
judgment, that nothing is further from me, than willingly to pre- 



EXPLANATIONS. 343 



judice your highness. But if intrusion be tolerated, in hostile 
manner, in England, for a cow or a silly beast, or for recovery of 
a lewd fugitive, how much more may it please your Majesty to 
moderate your censure of this, being done quietly and peaceably, 
since it imports the honour, credit, and reputation of myself and 
my service to them in deed I am in true duty bound ! Lastly, 
whereas your Majesty desires to be resolved, whether it be done 
by her Majesty's warrant or no ; I truly answer, that it was not 
by any private advice now presently given me from her Majesty, 
but by my public charge ; according to which I humbly desire 
your Majesty to excuse me if I return him not, without her 
Majesty's further pleasure known, which then I shall be very 
ready and willing to do, in all other services which do not con- 
cern her Majesty and her occasions ; for which I postepose ail 
perils that are under the sun, or above the earth. And so with 
all humbleness becoming me, I leave your Majesty to the pro- 
tection of the great God, the Disposer of all princes' hearts. 

" Berwick, this 15th of June, '99 \" 

On the same day the Governor despatched another letter to 
the Secretary, Cecil, to fill up the vacancies which he imagined 
to exist in his first hurried account. He added, in the second, 
that the party sent by his orders to Edinburgh, to " reduce " 
Ashfield, made divers overtures to the Ambassador, Sir William 
Bowes; and that "it pleased him to accept of" the one, which 
they had since carried into execution, of entrapping him, under 
pretence of "good fellowship, into a coach, and then bringing 
him into Willoughby's custody." Of the recovered fugitive him- 
self, he says, " The religious take knowledge of his treachery 

' Lord Willougliby to the King of Scots, June 15, 1599. State Paper 
Office, Borders, vol. 68. 



against religion, and bless God for this (his) capture, which the 
King and greater sort are exceedingly grieved withal, though 
themselves have committed many enormities ; videlicet, by pur- 
suing many with most bloody intentions into England, though 
(I thank God) not in my time, both against her Majesty and his 
subjects in our nation, for far less faults than this man is charged 
with." . . . "My Lord Ambassador," he adds, "is somewhat 
straitened, and many great threats are given out against him and 
me. For my own part, I seek to please none but one ; and 
weigh not the displeasure of any, so her Majesty be served in all 
duty and faithfulness. I repent not what I have done." He 
concludes by informing Cecil, that " Mr. Waynman is just come, 
though with great danger, and hath brought with him Ashfield's 
papers, which I would not take from him, being unwilling to 
prejudice his deserts, or to wrong the worthy endeavours of my 
Lord Ambassador." He further adds, " that he sends him two 
letters of Ashfield's to Sir Robert Kerr, which the former had 
greatly importuned him to forward to their address ; but which, 
suspecting some private dealings between them, he had thought 
fit to detain \" 

Sir Robert Kerr had apparently interested himself in the 
matter of Ashfield, and to him also Willoughby forwarded a 
justification of his conduct, and asserted for the Ambassador 
the authority which such persons had a right to claim in 
virtue of their office. This he instanced by an account of 
the jurisdiction assumed by the French "Legier" in London, 
who had even executed a Frenchman in his own house. " The 
privilege of them is very great ; and I believe our Ambassador 

1 Lord Willoughby to Sir R. Cecil, Berwick, June 15, 1599. State Paper 
Office, Borders, vol. 68. 



THE AMBASSADOR S STATEMENT. 



345 



in his honour will stand upon it, and not post it over." Again, he 
denies having used any violence in the apprehension of the pri- 
soner ; and says, " if any cunning were used, let them that did 
devise it answer it." ..." I am sorry," he concludes, " you gave 
cause the last day for breaking of the truce, and satisfying accord- 
ing to justice and honour ; for which, upon your hand and word, 
I assembled divers persons, who, expecting justice, found them- 
selves frustrated, and the good purpose, together with your pro- 
mise, fail. The long-expected remedy of these things from time 
to time, puts me in doubt of the protested performance, and so 
leaves me to censure of myself and others if it be not remedied. 
Thus for this time I leave you to God. Berwick, this 15th of 
June, '99. 

" Your faithful and honest friend, as become th me, 

"P. W.'" 

The Ambassador, however, did not acknowledge his supposed 
share in the capture of the prisoner, declaring that he was per- 
fectly ignorant of his being in the coach when it passed by, con- 
veying him to his destination at Berwick. The coach was, however, 
his ; and, by his own account, he had just left it, to join some 
Scottish gentlemen who were amusing themselves by walking on 
the sands. In the mean while, he says, " Waterhouse, Lord Wil- 
loughby's secretary, and Ashfield, desired to enter the coach, 
which his coachman ignorantly suffered ; and then being bidden 
to pass on forward, with both sides of the coach open, came close 
by the Scottish gentlemen and him, they being in number eight 



1 Letter of Lord Willoughby to Sir Robert Ker, Berwick, June 15, 1599. 
State Paper Office, Borders, vol. 68. 



or ten, and with him only three and his friend." Such was Sir 
William Bowes' account to James \ at an interview he had with 
that monarch, who had sent for him to Leith, to confer on this 
very matter ; but without waiting for his Majesty's remonstrance, 
he boldly begun by demanding satisfaction, on the part of his 
own royal mistress, for some outbreaks and murders lately com- 
mitted on the Middle March, to which the King promised to 
give his attention, but was, in fact, absorbed in what he considered 
an indignity to himself, (the carrying off Ashfield,) and the slan- 
der (as he termed it, against his people of Edinburgh) of offering 
violence to the Ambassador, on account of his abduction. For 
the discussion of these matters he appointed another meeting on 
the 14th ; and receiving Sir William in council, and placing a 
chair for him, reproached him with seconding Lord Willoughby's 
servants in their successful attempt ; for that, in his presence, his 
coach had carried the prisoner away. "I am no party," replied 
the Ambassador, " to the violent carrying away of Ashfield out 
of your highness' dominions. I was ignorant of his entry into 
my coach, or of his being in it at his passing by ; otherwise, if 
out of his unwillingness to go, he had showed any sign in word 
or deed, we had given him help." He added, that his passing 
by so willingly put him out of doubt, that he went in like 
manner willingly, and therefore that "no peace was broken to 
the King." As to the other matter, *'the slander," as his Ma- 
jesty was pleased to term it, (adding that " a barbarous motion 
might well cause a barbarous com-motion, but that he would 
nevertheless punish any particular persons or trespassers that 
might be pointed out,") Sir William replied, that the safety of 

^ See his letter to Cecil, 16th of June, 1599. State Paper Office, Scot- 
land, vol. 66. 



THE AMBASSADOR THREATENED. 



347 



the English embassy " touched the King deeplier in honour, than 
them in their lives ;" and therefore he "recommended the care 
to him of so important a point to both their Majesties and their 
realms, and would avoid all offence given or to be given by him 
or his." 

James, however, still dissatisfied, sent for the servants of 
Bowes, specially the coachman, to undergo an examination ; but 
the Ambassador answered, that to avoid dishonour to his own 
nation, and to the King, for breaking his safe conduct, and also in 
consequence of the threats of sundry persons, he had thought 
it necessary to discharge these attendants. He concludes his 
account of these occurrences thus : 

" Many shows of violence have been pretended about my house, 
specially in the night, and many warnings have been given me 
by my well-willers to beware. Amongst others, I send your 
honour^ enclosed a paper ^, given up at the window to my ser- 
vants this other night, at which time my lodging was beset on 
both sides, and the fields laid with horsemen, led with personages 
of good quality, upon an idle imagination that I would flee away. 
The well-disposed in the High Town have entreated me to 
remove my lodging thither ; but I am resolved, having made no 
fault, I will show no fear^." 

This letter from Sir William Bowes to Cecil is dated from 
Edinburgh, the 16th of June, 1599. On the 18th, he again ex- 
presses the strong feeling against him ; and that although Ashfield 
himself acknowledged no wrong was done him, yet that many 
continued to assert, that " an intoxicate drink had been given 

» Sir R. Cecil. 

? An anonymous letter, warning him that he was beset with enemies. 
3 State Paper Office, Scotland, vol. 69. 

Yy2 



him during his quaffing at Leith, as though some opium had been 
given him with his sugar in his wine, which so bedulled his 
senses, as he wist not what he did for the time." In consequence 
of this representation, and his desire to be removed from a situ- 
ation in which he was so greatly disliked, Bowes was recalled ; 
but in the mean while Willoughby conceived a hope that the 
King's displeasure had blown over, and under this impression he 
thus writes on the 20th to Sir Robert Cecil : " Since the sending 
of my Trumpet, and stay of their ships and merchants, there 
hath been a warrant from the King, for the releasing of my men 
and ship." He goes on to say, " My Lord Ambassador is not 
so straitened as he was, and all things are growing to quiet 
terms, evident appearance that the storm is past, which I 
thought good to advertise, lest the thunders sent before might 
seem to have threatened a more continued storm than now 
it falls out to be, the most part of the clouds being already 
overblown \" 

When, however, the time arrived for conveying the prisoner, 
Ashfield, whom Willoughby would not resign, to his place of 
destination, he was annoyed to find that after many vain attempts 
to draw together " twenty horse of the Queen's garrison of four 
score, he could but muster fourteen, to whom therefore he was 
obliged to entrust him ;" at the same time despatching a remon- 
strance^ to the Secretary, on the want of order which prevailed in 
his government, and which "if not innovated, (if innovation be 
reducing of things to order,) I shall not," he says, " be able to 

^ Lord Willoughby to Sir Robert Cecil, Berwick, June 20, 1599. State 
Paper Office, Borders, vol. 68. 

2 Letter of Lord Willoughby to Sir R. Cecil, Berwick, June 27, 1599. 
State Paper Office, Borders, vol. 68. 



WINDEBANK TO WILLOUGHBY. 349 

serve her Majesty, either in the wardency or in the town, upon 
any sudden occasion." 

One of the persons deputed by him to conduct Ashfield to 
London, was a gentleman of the name of Marshal, the bearer, on 
his return, of an interesting letter to Willoughby, from Mr. 
Windebank, clerk of the Signet, who, after saying that he would 
not miss this favourable opportunity of expressing his "affec- 
tionate devotion," continues thus : "I was very glad that it was 
my good hap to be in the way when the license for your Lord- 
ship's son was to be made for him to be a Peregrin beyond seas ; 
but much more I rejoiced when at my procuring it to be signed, 
it pleased her Majesty to utter unto me her great good liking of 
your Lordship's proceedings there in her service, and of the jewel 
which her Majesty's self told me she had given him, and of the 
great hope she had of him, to prove a meet man for her service 
in time to come. In which kind of speech her Majesty con- 
tinued so long, that I wished your Lordship had been but in a 
corner to hear it ; for I think it would have made you a whole 
man, though you had been sick. I take not upon me to write of 
any other matters to your Lordship, trusting that you will bear 
with me therein, as for a thing that I was warned forty and one 
years past by my old master, the late Lord Treasurer, I should 
not do ; hoping, nevertheless, that your Lordship wants not from 
greater personages advertisements meet and requisite for your 
Lordship's knowledge ; only I will say this to your Lordship, 
that her Majesty was never better of health, nor more gallant of 
body and mind, than I do find her at this present, which I know 
will be the best news to your Lordship that I could write ; and 
as for the same, I beseech the Lord God make us all thankful 
that we may long enjoy her. So with the same prayer I cease 



to be further tedious to your Lordship ; humbly craving pardon, 
and taking my leave. 

" At Greenwich, the 11th of July, 1599 '." 



On the ensuing 24th of July, the English Governor met, as 
his own handwriting informs us, *' the Scottish Warden, Sir 
Alexander Hume, at Fouldon-rigg, not far from Berwick, 
where," says he, " we both solemnly took our oaths in such 
ample manner for the administration of justice in our offices, as 
hath not for many years any precedent of the like. The same 
oath we required, according to an ancient treaty to that end, of 
all the gentlemen of special name there present, for the further- 
ance of justice in their places." His confidence in the truth and 
honesty of the party with whom he had to deal, is highly com- 
plimentary both to Sir Alexander Hume and his family. " The 
Humes," he says, " being, as they are reputed, religious, there is 
less cause to doubt any breach on that side than heretofore ; 
howbeit I assure nothing. The King," he continues, "as my 
good friends do daily advertise, is still highly discontented with 
the late accident ^, and fully resolved, any advantage serving, to 
take deep revenge on my own person and those I employed ; 
yet his subjects, in my opinion, well affronted^, will not unad- 
visedly put his menaces in execution. But these I leave to the 
proof." 

This same letter of Willoughby's to Sir Robert Cecil gives an 
account of a conference privately held with the Scottish Warden, 
at the desire of the latter, and in it he mentions that the King, 

^ Mr. Windebank to Lord Willougliby. State Paper Office, Borders, 
vol. 68. 

2 The arrest of Ashfield. ^ Opposed, or set face to face. 



either from some strange scrupulousness, or from a suspicion of 
the superior strength of the English, had conceived a dislike to 
the place which they had fixed to meet in. "The Scottish 
Warden," he says, " having given order in some causes pro- 
pounded, desiring privately to confer with me, acquainted me 
with the King's dislike of the place of our meeting, and his com- 
mandment to him not to proceed in justice there, where never 
trice (trew or truce) had been held ; saying further, that he 
doubted some breach that day. I told him I was very well pro- 
vided to keep the peace, willing him to look to his own party. 
Notwithstanding we gained so much of him as there were three 
English complaints ordered, which, the day being far spent, was 
in a manner all we could do ; and proclamation made by sound 
of trumpet at our parting, to confirm a precedent of general 
truce holden there. Which done, I agreed to his entreaty, which 
was to meet him at Westford, the 1st of August, there to proceed 
on with redress of all complaints, and come accompanied with 
forty men only. It seemed he thought us too strong at that pre- 
sent, but without a cause ; for, as was reported, he had in the 
field fifteen hundred horse, with two ancients of foot ; to my 
view, I judged them some eight hundred horse, we being not 
above six hundred horse and foot in all. As for the bills dealt 
in by the Commissioners, I find our own indents so imperfect 
and uncertain, and the opposites so unwilling to be brought to 
tilt in these causes, as that I doubt I shall hardly do any general 
acceptable service in that behalf, wherein notwithstanding I shall 
do my endeavour. 

" Sir, I very heartily thank you for your kind usage of my 
servants sent up with the prisoner \ I must further, at my 

1 Ashfield. 



352 MEETING WITH KER. 



coming up, intreat your honourable favour towards some of 
them in some small matters, which I shall always be ready to 
deserve with any service I can, to my uttermost power. I pray 
you, continue your friendly mediation for obtaining of my leave 
so shortly as may be, for which I shall think myself greatly 
bound unto you, if it may be sent me with some speed, that I 
may begin my journey before September. Our affairs here are 
now at a good point, and my private estate greatly requireth my 
return." 

The postscript adds, " Since the writing of this letter, I have 
received a letter from Cessford, to meet me the 10th of August, 
which day he would hold undelayedly for the satisfaction of 
justice, appointing our meeting to be but with sixty horse on 
either party, besides plaintiffs. To this I have condescended, 
and what shall be done, God willing, I will advertise you\" 

This expected meeting was not again deferred, for on the day 
appointed " I met," writes Lord Willoughby, " Sir Robert Ker, 
Warden of the Middle Marches, who notwithstanding the great 
bruit and many advertisements of extraordinary multitudes 
assembled there, which put the country in some jealousies, came 
accompanied with few more than was agreed upon." This ap- 
parently peaceful intention seems to have been well received; 
and after a few difficulties, founded on the unusualness of taking 
such an oath as had been required by a late treaty, and was now 
propounded by Willoughby, the Scotch Warden, he says, not only 
yielded to do so, but followed it up by " giving justice very or- 
derly and readily to the uttermost we could expect and desire, and 
further proffered to come by course to Carholme into England, to 

1 Letter of Lord Willoughby to Sir Robert Cecil. State Paper Office, 
Berwick, July 27, 1599. 



INFORMATION TO WILLOUGHBY. 353 

receive and be ready at Redden, in Scotland, to give satisfaction 
upon all complaints. Whereupon we concluded, and cast lots 
who should be the first satisfied, wherein I was so fortunate as 
to receive before I gave." After this amicable adjustment. Sir 
Robert privately informed Willoughby, that the King had issued 
commands that neither he nor his deputies should meet Guevara 
(Willoughby's deputy-warden) for redress of grievances, until the 
complaint of his Majesty to the Queen, touching his share in the 
arrest of Ashfield, had been answered. He repeated this in- 
formation aloud, and Willoughby openly replied, that he hoped 
the King, of an equity proper to a king, would condemn no man 
without cause; but charge him with some crime, whereof, if he 
cleared not himself, he (Willoughby) would satisfy him this, 
being moved thereunto by these reasons following : First, that he 
was most unwilling that these necessary meetings for the repara- 
tion of injuries should be delayed, having made such good pro- 
gress ; secondly, he did not consider the person of this gentleman 
(Guevara) to be in safety till the affair was determined ; and 
that in the mean while, rash people might attempt some mischief 
which would probably renew a breach between the two nations ; 
a thing that " in the beginning," he says, " I was as willing to 
prevent, as in conclusion (being driven thereunto) I would be 
forward to revenge." However, he was well disposed to satisfy 
the King, deeming it also not amiss, as the " old proverb " says, 
" since we have had our wills, to give the loser way for a while. 
Thus, we are here, all our affairs being brought to a good pass." 
Besides Sir Robert Ker's inclination to forward justice. Sir 
Alexander Hume, Warden of the East March, had " honourably 
delivered" to the Governor of Berwick, "to be punished at his 

discretion," a certain Scotch laird, who had broken the compact 

z z 



of a former meeting. " So that now we all stand in exceeding 
good and friendly terms, which I do not so partially allege for 
myself, as I durst refer myself to the attestation of the country 
gentlemen, whether they have at any time received better justice 
or greater contentment. Things being at this point, and the 
time drawing on, I pray you, Sir, remember my lease \" 

The Governor's next communication with Sir Robert Cecil, 
alludes to some late letters of his which he hoped had been re- 
ceived, but to which he did not expect (as the matters which 
they related to had been adjusted) any speedy answer: "I hope," 
he writes, "silence is a privy assent that I have not done ill, at 
least my conscience bears me record so. When I do, I shall 
expect no extraordinary favour, modo currat Veritas. The mean- 
while, Sir, I pray you, let me hope from you as the world holds 
you, and as myself have deserved of you, that you would, not 
only in your letters, but your thoughts, allow me a richer title of 
your kindness than ' poor friend.' I myself am so, and have too 
many of them already. Pardon me. Sir, if in plain dealing, 
especially of love, I endeavour not to pare ^ myself, but mend 



me^" 



He was still urgent for permission to absent himself, and re- 
turn to England for a time ; and on the 20th of August, he (by 
letter) thanks Mr. Windebank * for his " pains taken to procure 
his leave. . . I would not," he continues, " that her Majesty 

1 Lord Willoughby to Sir R. Cecil, Berwick, August 10, 1599. State 
Paper Office, Borders, vol. 68. 

2 To impair, to lessen. 

3 Lord Willoughby to Sir R. Cecil, Berwick, August 25, 1599. State 
Paper Office, Borders, vol. 68. 

* " One of the Clerks of her Majesty's most honourable Privy Council." 



should be urged to her displeasure : the worst that may ensue of 
my stay here, is but the loss of my living, and the hazard of 
my life, which I weigh not with her Majesty's service ; though I 
protest to you, Sir, my coming up will more further the same 
than my stay here, in regard of some matters of special import- 
ance I desire to impart to her Majesty, being present, which 
absent I will not write, unless I be commanded upon my alle- 
giance. I write not this for show to further the obtaining of my 
leave, but of just consideration of the condition and nature of the 
things themselves, reserved for their opportunity. Howsoever 
it please her Majesty to dispose of me, I desire to be resolved, 
for it is now winter with me, and in this uncertainty I can neither 
provide for my abode here, nor departure hence." This beautiful 
expression surely has a deeper meaning than at first meets the 
eye ; and how truly he judged that for him, although not ad- 
vanced in age, the winter of life was already come, will appear 
from the sequel of this history. His letter is dated the " last " 
day of August, 1599, and he subscribes himself to Mr. Winde- 
bank, " Your very assured loving friend and cousin," adding the 
following "Reasons to confirm his leave: 1. All things are 
quiet. 2. Order established in the garrisons and wardenry. 3. 
Deputies sufficient in both. 4. People ready to obey. 5, The 
adverse party reduced by oath, form, and awe, to keep good 
quarter with us. So as I dare undertake my absence in the 
wardenry shall not impeach her Majesty's service ; and in the 
town, Mr. Marshal hath made good proof of his sufficiency to 
discharge the same." He concludes the whole with the warning 
voice, "Haste, haste, haste, haste, Post^ !" 

' It was very customary to address the bearer of a letter thus, on the 
superscription ; and also, as in this case, to mark on it the hours when the 

z z 2 



356 KEU AND WIDRINGTON. 



On the 8th of September he informs the same correspondent, 
that being desirous to requite his kind remembrances, he enter- 
tained a sh'ght occasion, which, well handled, might have given 
greater, but now through the faint coldness of some is scarce 
worth the relating. "There has been," he adds, "these four- 
teen days past, a bruit of a quarrel betwixt Sir Robert Ker, 
Lord Warden of the Middle Marches of Scotland, and Mr. H. 
Widrington ; which what it is you may discern by the copies I 
send you herewith. Sir Robert was at the place appointed, the 
other came not." 

The origin of this quarrel seems to have lain at Widrington's 
door, who affirmed he had heard that Sir Robert had reported as 
his expressions, such as he declared he had never used ; namely, 
that he (Widrington) was equal in authority with the Warden of 
the Middle Marches of England. On the 5th of September 
Ker replies, that Widrington's letter was very scurrilous, " but 
that on Friday morning, the 7th of September, God willing, he 
should be at the Hayr Craggs, on the March between England 
and Scotland, by eight hours in the morning, with a short sword 
and a whinniard, with a steel bonnet and plate sleeves, without 
any more weapons offensive or defensive," where he should hope 
to meet him if he had courage enough ; which if he did not, he 
should leave him to the world to be judged of as a prattling 
coward \ 

Willoughby closes his letter to Mr. Windebank with these 
words : "I pray you forget not my leave. I am now by a late 

express arrived at the post-towns. Sometimes, by way of warning to the 
post-boy, the drawing of a gallows was added. The letter in question is in 
the State Paper Office. Borders, vol. 68. 
^ State Paper Office, Borders, vol. 68. 



WILLOUGHBY IN LONDON. 



357 



accident of a new disease, worse than all ray former sicknesses, 
forced to be more importunate and earnest than otherwise T 
should have been \" 

The desired permission was shortly after granted ; for in the 
ensuing February we find him in London ; but whatever may 
have been the pressing nature of his private affairs, he was not 
unmindful of his public trust, on which he thus addresses Sir 
Robert Cecil : 

" I think myself deeply beholden to your courteous answer 
returned by my man ; and if I should not importune you, I 
would beseech you by these, now the term is ended, before other 
occasions of more weight might divert you, the matters of Ber- 
wick, which I hope shall be easy to you, may have a day of hear- 
ing, and the place I wish might be at your house. There may 
peradventure some questions arise about the works and treasure, 
which it may be my Lord Treasurer^ will look to be acquainted 
withal. I shall yield him what respect is due, but he maintain- 
eth a felon publique in his house that did manslaughter a kins- 
man of mine very foully in my gates. For many reasons de- 
pending thereof, I would be loth to repair to any house but the 
court or yours. I beseech you. Sir, therefore, if it may be, let 
me wait on you, who for your many worthy parts I do soundly 
and truly honour ; and therefore will ever be ready to give you 
testimony for your own particular ; and in general I shall be 
ready in this, or any service to be done her Majesty, to discharge 
myself before any shall best please her Majesty to appoint. And 
so desiring to have my plainness excused, which is rather a fault 



^ Letter of Lord Willoughby to Mr. Wiiidebank, Berwick, September 8, 
1599. State Paper Office, Borders, vol. 68. 
2 Buckhurst. 



of nature than artifice, since I cannot dissemble. I rest V' &c. 
&c. 

A pause here occurs in the actual correspondence of Lord 
Willoughby. Removed from the scene of his government, for a 
time, by his own desire, and partly for the benefit even of his 
charge, he had of course less necessity for a continued communi- 
cation with the chief authorities of England. He was, however, 
roused to assert his prerogative as Governor, on hearing of a 
very remarkable transaction which took place in his absence, and 
which caused a great and extraordinary sensation. On the Good 
Friday of this year, a man possessed of considerable property 
died intestate at Berwick, without any legal representative, and 
in the confusion that ensued, many parties seemed disposed to 
appropriate, if possible, the spoil of the deceased. His own cre- 
ditors first claimed their share, carrying off all they could. The 
Marshal, Sir John Carey, who (in the absence of Willoughby) 
officiated as Deputy-Governor, seized a large sum of money, 
procuring letters of administration (ex officio) from the Bishop of 
Durham ; whilst Sir William Bowes, Treasurer of Berwick, ob- 
taining possession of another and considerable sum, employed it 
to pay the garrison, a plan which afforded the latter no small 
delight. Lord Willoughby, hearing of all these proceedings, 
and of the contentions and disputes of the conflicting parties, 
claimed authority in virtue of his office, and on his side procured 
letters of administration from the Archbishop of York ; while 
the Lord Treasurer, in London, interested himself to obtain that 
the whole should be paid over to a certain John Arden, " a re- 
puted cousin of the late John Harding." As to the sum of which 

^ Lord Willoughby to Sir R. Cecil. (London, February, 1600.) State 
Paper Office, Borders, vol. 69. 



Sir John Carey had made himself master, he intreated her Ma- 
jesty to award it to him on account of his faithful services, and 
also for the better maintenance of his daughter, Anne Carey, in 
the post she held near her Majesty's person. Lord Willoughby 
exerted himself to obtain restitution of the money thus suddenly 
detained, and for that purpose sent a letter of attorney to the 
Mayor of Berwick, his kinsman, (Mr. Guevara,) and Mr. Selby \ 
that they might be empowered to demand the same. His plan 
was a noble one, and worthy of imitation in any parallel case. 
He proposed that Sir William Bowes, retaining a sufficiency to 
pay the garrison expenses, the bulk of the vast property in 
question should be appropriated to the building and endowing of 
a church in Berwick, where the late owner had lived and died, 
who thus would be the involuntary means of a great benefit to 
his fellow-citizens, while he would secondarily contribute to their 
temporal security and defence. On the 6th of August, 1600, 
Willoughby, writing from his English home at Grimsthorpe, thus 
addresses Sir Robert Cecil on the subject : 

" The daily favours I receive from you bind me much, but 
the enlarging of your good advice especially ; whereunto I shall 
shape my course with no less joy than a ship a wrecking would 
to the comfort of an experienced pilot. But yet pardon me to 
satisfy you and the world. I do not contest, neither with my 
Lord Treasurer nor Sir John Carey, nor consequently hinder the 
Queen's service. My Lord Treasurer pretends all for the 
Queen. I intend (as I protest before God) to her own ends and 
most glory. The ways are diverse, my Lord, without the law, 
but his pleasure. I desire to be censured by law, even in the 

^ Gentleman-Porter. 



Court of Exchequer, where himself sits judge. He employs one 
Arden, a supposed kinsman to Harding, a fellow of no great 
means, a dangerous fellow% a suspected Papist, and an old 
traveller. This fellow, scant worth £2000 if all his debts were 
paid, bound to administer where I have right, mine not revoked; 
as though administrations might play at leap-frog. I, on the 
other side, am bound in £3000, with other my friends. Whether 
the Queen is likelier to be served by him or me is the question. 
To second this man's courses, the whole establishment of Ber- 
wick is transverted, the order of the pay, and tickets put into 
foreign hands ; a thing unheard-of, and of dangerous precedent, 
as though her Majesty's Council, the Governor, and Treasurer, 
sworn magistrates for that purpose, could not as well take order 
for these monies, as others. Did they refuse it ? No ! it ap- 
pears by the Treasurer's letter, sent to my Lord Treasurer's 
objections, both which I send herewithal ; for Sir William Bowes 
desires to have them known unto you ; my letter likewise to my 
Lord Treasurer will clear me sufficiently. If there be mistakings, 
it is insinuated to them, that at the first, to serve their purposes, 
took every shape upon them, and now perhaps persuade it 
better to fish in troubled waters than clear, indirectly rather 
than directly. And I (that course I most humbly desire pardon 
for) have reason to provide to see my bonds discharged, the 
Queen's laws answered, and subjects satisfied. On the other 
side, by my oath, to maintain the privileges of the garrison. 
Let the matter be so handled, as these be dispensed withal ; I 
dispute no further. The world knows I neither have the money, 
nor desire to finger it. I only stand to give God and my sove- 
reign their deodands by legitimate, not wrong ways. Much ado 
is made with those that have it not, and from whom there is 



much equity to use moderation in demanding it. But where 
there be great sums in Sir John Carey's hands, that is passed 
over. The poor garrison, fleeced by much usury, is not a little 
discontented to see such working, not for them, but against them. 
And if out of their pay any more stops be made, they will cry 
loud out, though they should receive no help. And when all is 
done, those sums will never be so well paid to the Commis- 
sioners, as by an orderly proceeding. My Lord Treasurer in 
his wisdom will yield her Majesty's subjects the benefit of her 
laws. Let the deceased's goods be levied by legitimate ad- 
ministrators ; they may account to the commissioners as my Lord 
appoints ; but my Lord's office, under his correction, is not to 
appoint administrators to be treasurer of the Church, nor to alter 
alone the establishment of Berwick government. But if we do 
otherwise than becomes us, we submit us to censure and pu- 
nishment ; if not, I desire for my part, that I may not be worse 
dealt with than a cousin Arden to Harding, in the face of both 
nations where I serve. In these, I have written to my Lord 
Treasurer at large, but had no direct answer. It may be, if it 
please you to intimate so much to him, that thereupon both I 
and the service may be the less opposed and go better on. God, 
I hope, will give you better success than yet we have ; which I 
humbly, together with all earthly and celestial happiness to you, 
pray for, and so take my leave. Grimsthorpe, this 1st of 
August, 1600, &c. 

" Most honourable of my friends, interpret not this to trouble 
you : let my Lord Treasurer see it, as a declaration of truth to 
be abiden by ; an accusation of none ; an intention of goodness. 
If his Lordship would have credit the truth in him, is able to 

justify it more than in those he doth, I would spare no labour to 

3 A 



satisfy him ; but now I seek to observe ^ from partiality my ^ 
God, my prince, and a free conscience ; succeed it as it will ^" 

It may be well to remark, that Bowes obeyed Willoughby's 
instructions as to the payment of the garrison, and received in 
consequence a very angry and peremptory letter from the Lord 
Treasurer, to which he replied at some length ; and so stood the 
parties when Willoughby quitted London to resume his govern- 
ment in the North. 

From Eresby, where he rested for a while in returning to 
Berwick, he forwarded to Sir Robert Cecil a paper of import- 
ance, respecting the plot familiarly called the *' Gowrie con- 
spiracy," a plot as inexplicable in itself and in its motives, as its 
execution is enveloped in obscurity. What could have induced 
two brothers, who, according to contemporary authors, were re- 
markable for apparent virtue and promising dispositions, to enter 
on so atrocious a scheme for the murder of their sovereign, it is 
difficult to conceive ; and the whole affair remains still shrouded 
by an impenetrable mystery. Whatever was the motive of their 
crime. Lord Gowrie and his brother, Alexander Ruthven, paid 
the immediate forfeit of their lives, falling by the hands of the 
King's attendants ; the latter, with his dying breath, declaring, 
that the blame " laid not on him ;" whilst the elder fell silently, 
"without once crying upon God." So at least vouches an 
account published at the time, which relates how James was 
allured by Ruthven to his elder brother's house, and decoyed 
into a room where he found a servant placed to despatch him ; 



' Observe, preserve. 

2 This postscript is added in Lord Willoughby's own hand. The rest of 
the letter is in that of a clerk, and is to be found in the State Paper Office, 
Borders, vol. 69. 



how, on being ordered to prepare for death, he manfulJy refused 
to be bound, and in the struggle drew near enough to an open 
window, to be both seen and heard by his suite, who rushed to 
his rescue, and arrived in time to save their sovereign, and lay 
his murderers at his feet ; when " kneeling down on his knees in 
the midst of his servants, and they all kneeling round about him, 
he thanked God of that miraculous deliverance and victory'." 
The paper of intelligence sent by Willoughby was accompanied 
by a letter which runs thus : 

" Most honourable Knight, — Though I persuade myself the 
news of the Earl of Gowrie's misfortune cannot but come more 
speedily than these, which are come but of the post way, and 
found me journeying northward, at my farthest house that way ; 
I credit them for that they come from Sir John Carey, and for 
respect to you, who hath interest to receive the effects of my best 
affections, when God shall give me occasion to testify the same 
to you," &c.^ 

Probably Willoughby was detained at Eresby longer than he 
at first expected ; for it seems he was severely and painfully 
affected by sickness ; and that feeling how uncertain was his 
tenure of life, he had intreated for leave to absent himself from 
the charge of Berwick in case of emergency, without the neces- 
sity of a direct appeal to the Queen. On this subject Sir Robert 
Cecil writes him the following answer : 

*' My very good Lord, — Because I hope you are safe arrived 
by this time, I now address these letters unto you, and with them 
the best wishes that any friend can afford you. It hath not been 

^ From an account published in 1603, now in the Bodleian Library. 

2 Lord Willoughby to Sir R. Cecil, Eresby, August 10, 1600. State 

Paper Office, Borders, vol. 69. 

3 A 2 



364 



THE QUEEN 



forgetfulness that hath retarded the procuring of this warrant, 
which I do send you inclosed, but some little difficulty made by 
her Majesty, who seemeth rather to stick at it, because other go- 
vernors will sue for the like. But this is now superfluous ; it is 
despatched with her Majesty's very good favour and protestation 
that she would not for any good, that ever you should receive 
the least blow to your health, for lack of such a liberty as she 
knows shall never be ill used. The Lord Scroope pretendeth to 
have received infinite injuries, that the Border is almost all 
broken, and that without some assistance her Majesty's dis- 
honour will be great. Hereupon his friends do greatly impor- 
tune his support, by having fifty soldiers out of Berwick. Where- 
unto I find her Majesty inclined upon that apprehension that she 
receiveth scorn in that Border. 

" For home news I know little worth your understanding, 
saving only that I conceive the Earl of Essex shall very shortly 
receive a further enlargement, for any man's coming to him, or 
his going abroad in the country. 

" To conclude. Sir, when you have cause to use me, you shall 
find me. 

" Your Lordship's loving and assured friend," &c.^ 

The Queen's own gracious permission runs thus : 

" Right trusty, &c. Whereas you have made an humble suit 
unto us, in respect of your sudden and often visitations of sick- 
ness, that we would be pleased to give you a provisional liberty 
to return from your charge of our town of Berwick, thereby to 



^ Letter of Sir R. Cecil to Lord Willoughby, August 18, 1600, from a 
minute in the handwriting of Cecil's secretary. State Paper Office, Borders, 
vol. 69. 



TO WILLOUGHBY. 365 



prevent some sudden extremity which may surprise you, before 
you can send up to us and have answer. Because we would 
have you think that we repose so great confidence in you as not 
to suspect your indiscretion to be such for lack of care of our 
service and your own honour, as to take the benefit hereof to the 
prejudice or peril of your charge, or else so little to esteem your 
well-doing, as not vouchsafe you leave to use the best remedy 
you can for prevention ; we are contented hereby to give you 
warrant upon any important occasion to commit the charge either 
to our Marshal, if he be there, or some other so sufficient officer 
for whom you will undertake in your absence. 
" At Nonsuch, the 18th of August, 1600 \" 

On the 23rd of August, Lord Willoughby, whose malady 
(more violent even than usual) still detained him at Eresby, 
despatched the following acknowledgment of her Majesty's kind- 
ness and indulgence, addressing it to Sir Robert Cecil : 

" I assure you, Sir, your honourable favours which have always 
outgone my deserts, have at this time even prevented my ex- 
pectations, that looked not for so quick an issue of my signed 
warrant ; considering the multiplicity of your affairs abroad, and 
progress time at home." (The Queen was on a progress at this 
time to visit the Earl of Hertford.) " I shall think the time a 
great deal longer that may make me so fortunate as yield you 
some harvest of these your honourable labours. I was exceed- 
ingly ill-surprised the night before I intended my journey, with 
a kind of mine old infirmity, which held me much in my body, 
more than in any other parts ; but these cordials of yours have 

^ Letter from Queen Elizabeth to Lord Willoughby. State Paper Office, 
Borders, vol. 69. 



so far revived me, as I hope shortly to be strong for the per- 
formance of my journey, being thus far forward as I am ; mean 
season, by the continuance of your favours, I hope faults of 
necessity and not of negligence may be excused. I am sorry I 
have not a body of brass ; but I hope God will supply my weak- 
ness in another nature, since He worketh not always wonders 
by giants nor strong bodies. I shall long till I arrive where at 
last, if I can give you no good account of that state, I may yet 
yield you some of my love, which shall be wholly at your com- 
mandment. 

" I beseech you. Sir, do me that great favour as to present her 
Majesty with my most humble thankfulness for her gracious and 
royal respects done me, as to your wisdom shall seem best\" 

So severe was this illness, that on the succeeding 10th of Sep- 
tember, Sir Robert Cecil received the following letter from Lord 
Scroope : 

" Sir, — You shall understand that I am certainly advertised 
that the Lord Willoughby is very sore sick, and in danger of 
life, unless he be mended, a very little time since. By my last 
letters you understand that he is very unwilling any of the sol- 
diers of her Majesty's garrison of Berwick should come hither ; 
and therefore if it would please you to direct your letter for that 
number we should have thence to Sir John Carey, I think he 
would send them more willingly and speedily than the Lord 
Governor will, for truly this place needs them ^" 



» Lord WiUoughby to Sir R. Cecil, Eresby, August 23, IGOO. State Paper 
Office, Borders, vol. 69. 

^ Lord Scroope to Sir R. Cecil, September 10, 1600. State Paper Office, 
Borders, vol. 70. 



Ten days, however, after the date of this letter, the con- 
valescent Governor made his appearance at Berwick, from Eng- 
land, almost at the same time that the English Ambassador, Sir 
Thomas Brounker, who had been despatched to Scotland on the 
occasion of the Gowrie conspiracy, arrived also, on his return 
from his mission ^ ; and on the 21st he thus writes to Sir Robert 
Cecil : 

" Sir, — As I have just cause to honour you much, and to be 
mindful of the kindness you have done me, so I could wish I 
could to your contentment as well merit it, as from a sound free 
heart I do acknowledge it ; and if this place, or rather myself 
now arrived here, could afford you any thing agreeable, my best 
endeavours shall not want. To write further of ourselves or our 
neighbours, were to add water to the sea. I know you have 
sundry advertisements, and my Lord Ambassador is returning ; 
only this give me leave to trouble you, (as of duty appertaining 
to me,) to acquaint you w^ith, that upon my home coming, w^hich 
was of Saturday last at night, weary, Sesford would net suffer 
me to rest the Sabbath, but with marvellous and importunate 
entreaties, both by letters and messengers, required conference of 
me, which this afternoon I condescended unto, and met him at a 
place called Longryce, two miles from Berwick. I fear me 
I have been over-bold and tedious unto you ; excuse me in both, 
and command me in any thing wherein I may do you service," 
&c. &c.' 

The Governor's next letter is written on the eve of the gene- 

» Letter in the State Paper Office, from Sir John Carey. Borders, 
vol. 70. 

2 Lord Willoughby to Sii' R. Cecil, Berwick, September 21, 1600. State 
Paper Office, Borders, vol. 70. 



368 



GENERAL CONVENTION. 



ral convention of the nobility and clergy of Scotland, which sub- 
ject he mentions thus : 

*' In giving way to these, my love will not let me omit the 
occasion to salute you, wherein I doubt not you will be well 
acquainted with the present occurrents, until this general con- 
vention of the nobility and clergy of Scotland, now at hand, 
make ripe matter of higher consequence, which in time will bring 
forth more certainties than can properly be now written '. It is 
much to be feared that these turbulent clouds will breed some 



1 The foUowiug letter gives a moi*e minute account of the proceedings of 
this convention : 

" George Nicolson to Sir R. Cecil. 

" Border Correspondence, 
" State Paper Office. 

" On Wednesday, he (the King) came hither where the Commissioners of 
the Synodals were and are yet ; but none of the nobility or council, save the 
Treasurer, my Lord of Newbottle, Secretary, Advocate, Collector, Comp- 
troller, Mr. Edward Bruce, and Clerk of Register ; with whom the King 
having long and divers conferences, he with their Commissioners and Coun- 
cillors have displaced three of the ministers before silenced, (Mr. Walter 
Balcanquell, Mr. William Watson, and Mr. James Banfoure,) who are now 
to seek other places elsewhere. Mr. John Hall, for that he was not at the 
17th December, is restored to his place ; but Mr. Robert Bruce to be 
banished, having gotten but leave to stay tUl Martinmas. Further, the 
King and convention aforesaid have agreed to have bishops, and for the 
beginning have ordained Mr. David L}Tidsay, Bishop of Ross ; Mr. Robert 
Pont, Bishop of Orkney ; and Mr. George Gledstanes, Bishop of Caithness ; 
and, as soon as the King can reduce the rest of the bishoprics, to have them 
also furnished with bishops ; and for this purpose the King and said con- 
vention have resolved that the Act of Annexation, the erection of spiritual 
lands into temporal lordships, and the annexation and disposition of patron- 
age to gentlemen and others, shall all be annulled and revoked, as well to 
increase the King's living by the abbacies, priories, &c. as to establish the 
bishops with the livings, and the ministers with the tenths and livings be- 



RESUMPTION OF AUTHORITY. 369 

Storms, if the distemper be not calmed, which, as the time shall 
afford, you shall be made privy to. My neighbours being thus 
on fire about me, must make me more vigilant to keep the 
sparks from mine own charge, and therefore must be, bold to 
entreat your favour, that we may here be spared fi*om weakening 
ourselves by withdrawing any of our forces, and the rather, being 
now in the midst of our harvest. At this instant Sir Robert 
Carey and myself are to deal with Cesford about the swearing of 
these troublesome bills of the pledges of York, the success 
whereof you shall hereafter be acquainted with \" 

It does not seem that even the violent sickness that had 
brought Willoughby to the verge of the grave, did in the least 
impair his energies, or prevent his exerting to the full the autho- 
rity, which on his recovery he resumed at Berwick. It appears 
to have been a part of his firm and manly character, never to 
suffer any encroachment on powers, for the due assertion of 
which he considered himself responsible to his sovereign. On 
his return to his government in the year 1600, he encountered, 
however, much opposition from persons who looked upon them- 
selves as aggrieved by his claims ; and as a specimen of the kind 



longing to the several churches. Edmburgh, October 19, 1600." George 
Nicolson, to Sir R. Cecil. Border Correspondence, State Paper Office. 

This decision, however, in favour of the establishment of Episcopacy (a 
project which King James had meditated ever since 1597) does not appear 
to have been considered as final. On the 21st of October, Lord Willoughby 
again writes to Sir R. Cecil : " For occurrences, it is uncertain whether the 
convention hold, but the Kmg is determined to have bishops." But in the 
general assembly held at Montrose in 1600-1, the bishops were nominated, 
and a modified episcopacy ultimately estabhshed. 

1 Lord WUloughby to Sir R. Cecil, Berwick, October 8, 1600. State 
Paper Office, Borders, vol. 70. 

3 B 



370 



COMPLAINT 



of complaint alleged, the following copy of an original paper is 
subjoined : 

" To the Right Honourable the Lords and others of her Ma- 
jesty's most honourable Privy Council. 

" In most humble manner complaining, sheweth unto your 
honours, Richard Musgrave ; that whereas it hath pleased her 
Majesty, by her letters patent under her great seal of England, 
to make him Master of the Ordnance in the town of Berwick, 
and the forts thereunto belonging, wherein he hath been very 
careful to discharge his duty according to his oath, and trust 
reposed in him by her Majesty ; so it is that the Lord Wil- 
loughby, now Governor of the said town, challengeth to himself 
a prerogative and title of a Lord General, which was never 
granted nor thought of by any Governor going before him, and 
intending out of that authority to order all things after his own 
appetite ; not only in scorn of the Council appointed in that 
place by her Majesty, but to the enforcing of men's consciences 
in the allowance of such actions and demands as are contrary to 
their oaths taken for the performance of their faithful service to 
her Majesty, disgracing and terrifying her officers with rigour 
and severity of punishment, and pretence of a martial law which 
he intendeth to establish amongst them, whereby not only myself 
am, but others are like to be discouraged from the performance 
of their duties. In tender consideration whereof it may please 
your honours to take a view of the articles and grievances here- 
under written, and accordingly to provide such timely remedy 
for redress thereof, as in your honourable wisdoms shall be 
thought meet and convenient. And your suppliant, with many 
others, her Majesty's well-aiFected subjects, as most bounden, 



OF MUSGRAVE. 37l 



shall continually pray to God, for your Lordships' long health 
and happiness. 

"That whereas heretofore upon a view taken by her Majesty's 
Surveyor of the fortifications of Berwick, the castle (a piece of 
fortification in the old town) was by his appointment defaced 
and demolished, as a thing very dangerous to the safety of the 
town ; his Lordship hath of late re-edified the same with houses 
and buildings of pleasure for his own private use, without respect 
of public good, and to her Majesty's great charge and expense. 

" That he challengeth to himself the name of General, by the 
power whereof he may use the execution of martial law upon 
such as shall contrary his designs and purposes, although they be 
tied thereto by oath and duty to her Majesty. 

*' That by virtue of this authority, his Lordship presumeth to 
elect a new council after his own fancy, to the great disgrace of 
the council already appointed by her Majesty, making his autho- 
rity indefinite, and his power the terror of her most dutiful and 
best-affected subjects and servants, whose credit he spareth not 
to question and censure after his own appetite, even for such 
services as by oath they are bound to perform to her Majesty, 

" That whereas heretofore the Master of the Ordnance placed 
all officers under his charge according to ancient custom and the 
warrant of his patent ; by virtue of which authority, he having 
chosen in the Lord Governor's absence certain persons fit for 
such employment, the Lord Governor upon his return to Ber- 
wick, without any cause or offence committed by the persons so 
elected, out of the absolute authority which he investeth in him- 
self, displaced them by his warrant, and in their rooms admitted 
men very unworthy that service ; the one of them having fled 

his country for debt and other misdemeanors, the other a ship- 

3 B 2 



372 MUSGRAVE 



Wright, never practised in any such employment, and therefore 
in opinion thought very unfit to undergo the discharge of that 
duty. 

** That not long since he conceived displeasure against the 
Master of the Ordnance, for that he denied to disarm her Ma- 
jesty's town of Berwick, and other forts thereabouts, of eight 
pieces of ordnance, for the furnishing of his new-built ship. 

" That out of this conceived displeasure against the said 
Master of the Ordnance, for not giving passage to his Lordship's 
warrants, thus unduly directed, he caused him to be convened 
before a council of war, of his own election, compounded and 
consisting of twenty persons, some whereof were strangers, but 
the whole company so devoted to his Lordship, as they could 
not be competent judges of the said Master, (he being one of the 
council appointed for that garrison,) as also for that the cause, by 
consent of both parties, was referred to the consideration of her 
Majesty's Council of Estate. Which innovation and disgrace, 
with others of like nature, being contrary to her Majesty's 
establishment, and never offered to the Master of the Ordnance 
by any other Lord Governor, (if it should continue unre formed,) 
must of necessity bring with it a contempt of all the commanders 
in that town, as drawing all respect of fear, love, and obedience, 
from all other officers, to the person only of the Lord Governor. 

" That notwithstanding the said Master is charged to her Ma- 
jesty by oath and indenture for answering of all the ordnances 
within the said town and strengths thereof, his Lordship, by his 
own appointment, contrary to order, carried two pieces of ord- 
nance from the Holy Island to his ship, without the consent and 
privity of the officer appointed to that charge. 

"That he taketh upon him in a great sovereignty the title of 



Chancellor of her Majesty's possessions in Scotland, and as- 
sumeth unto himself, by the name of General, an absolute dis- 
position of all things, and power over all persons. For the better 
strengthening whereof, his Lordship will admit no contradiction 
of his own warrant, either for munition or any other provision 
within her Majesty's store ; although directed without the con- 
sent of her Majesty's officers, or for any other matter his Lord- 
ship shall be pleased to determine. So that if his Lordship shall 
be suffered to carry such an uncontrollable sway over her Ma- 
jesty's servants in these parts, he may at his pleasure call their 
lives in question, as well of her Majesty's council as any other 
person attending her service in that place \" 

After having so long followed the brilliant and active career 
of Lord Willoughby, one is grieved to find the last few months 
of so useful a life embittered by continual altercations and dis- 
putes ; and one's indignation is roused to hear the man who had 
impoverished himself in the service of his sovereign, reproached 
with spending sums on his own pleasure, and to her charge. 
The complaint of Musgrave is followed up by one from Mr. 
William Selby, dated the 28th of October, who " holding it his 
duty to advertise any thing that in his understanding concerneth 
her Majesty's service," and "protesting that what he has written 
or shall write, is void of all passion, and directed to no other end 
than to serve her Majesty," proceeds to state that the govern- 
ment of Berwick " begins to grow very powerful or absolute in 
one person," that the Lord Governor had claimed " too high 

1 Document in the State Paper Office, (Borders, vol. 70,) called, " Com- 
plaint of Richard Musgrave to the Privy Council against Lord Willoughby, 
October 13, 1600." It is remarkable that all this opposition to the powers 
claimed by him, arose after his return from court. 



374 SELBY TO CECIL. 



points of authority in martial matters," as Sir Robert Cecil had 
already been infonned "by Mr. Musgrave and him." . . "Since 
which time his Lordship hath challenged a new power and dig- 
nity in civil causes, never heard of in our age before, nor in the 
days of our fathers ; that is, he calleth himself, and sufFereth 
others to call him Chancellor of Berwick, whereby it is thought 
he intendeth to draw to his own particular hearing all civil 
matters and suits depending before the Mayor in the Town Court ; 
and beginneth to taste if they will submit their necks a little to 
this his yoke. His authority he challengeth by construction of a 
point of the town charter ; and in the East March his Lordship, 
by himself or his deputy, proclaimeth men fugitives for light 
contempts, as for not appearing upon his letters, contrary to the 
express words of the treaties ; but confiscation of goods presently 
followeth such proclamation, and they fail not to be seized ; 
felons' goods belonging to the Sheriff, for her Majesty, are like- 
wise taken as belonging to the Warden, the ofBce of justice of 
peace exercised by the Deputy-Warden not being in commission ; 
and somewhat further, for he bindeth men to the peace, not 
taking the recognizance in the shire where the party dwelleth ; 
and if the recognizance be broken, seizeth the goods of the 
offender, for breach of the recognizance, to his own use, and 
thereof he faileth not ; maketh Scots free denizens, but not 
without money, which power I did always conceive was by her 
Majesty permitted only to the Lord Keeper ; yet the Wardens 
have always used to license Scots for a time, short or long, to 
remain in England, but not to naturalize them. They go a little 
further, for they take upon them to hear pleas, sometimes of free- 
hold ; and do, by their own sole judgment, hear, determine, and 
award possession, dispossessing the ancient possessor, and pos- 



DISSENSIONS AT BERWICK. 375 

sessing a new plaintiff by their own warrant. . . . Most of all 
these things I have known done by Mr. Guevara, but few by my 
Lord himself, who hath yet been here but a short time." The 
complainant, however, adds, that " It may be (although not to us 
known) that her Majesty hath given this extraordinary authority 
to my Lord, never granted to any Warden heretofore, in my 
poor opinion very unequal for the country, and unprofitable for 
the service, as may be proved by many reasons. These things 
I deliver for your honour's particular information only, and not 
otherwise, except it be your pleasure to command me further. 
My Lord Governor hath in this month of his being here, been 
only one day abroad, such is his sickness and weakness. Sir 
William Eure came with him, and remaineth still with him, to 
acquaint himself with the matter of our government, that he may 
be the fitter to be my Lord's deputy in his absence, as some 
secretly whisper. He hath been in Scotland with Sir Robert 
Ker, at his house, where he received kind entertainment '." 

The troubles and anxieties of Willoughby's government were 
not however confined to the internal dissensions at Berwick alone. 
Its independence as a seat of government was warmly questioned, 
in a matter which bred dispute with the council or assembly de- 
puted by her Majesty to superintend the affairs of the North. 
Of this council at York ^ Thomas, Lord Burghley, eldest son of 
the deceased Treasurer, (Willoughby's early friend,) was pre- 

' Mr. William Selby (Gentleman-Porter) to Sir Robert Cecil, Berwick, 
October 28, 1600. State Paper Office, Borders, vol. 70. 

2 " The jurisdiction of the Council of the North, originally constituted by 
Henry the Eighth on the suppression of Ashe's rebellion, extended over 
several counties, the city of York being the principal place at which the 
sittings of the Council and the law courts were held. Hence it is indiffer- 
ently called the Council o/the North, or the Council at York." 



376 



ESCAPE OF NORTON. 



sident ; and the Governor of Berwick, being, in virtue of his 
office, bound to maintain the inalienable rights and privileges 
of its council against what he conceived to be the encroachments 
of the above-mentioned assembly, was thus brought into almost 
personal competition with one whom he was especially desirous 
not to offend. The escape of a prisoner for debt, of the name of 
Norton, from York, who took refuge at Berwick, and was not 
immediately given up by the Mayor of the latter place, — an affair 
which occurred in Willoughby's absence, — brought the matter 
to an issue, but is best explained by his own letters, the one 
addressed to the Privy Council, the other to Sir Robert Cecil. 
The former runs thus : 

" May it please your Lordships, — I have received your plea- 
sures by your letters this 24th of October, and presently assem- 
bled the Council, with the Mayor and his brethren here, to 
whom I imparted your Lordships' notified pleasure therein ; and 
he accordingly prepareth himself for his justification unto your 
Lordships, publicly before us protesting much, that by no con- 
nivance, part, or act of his, he had any interest in Norton's 
escape, bringing before us likewise his bailiffs, the gaoler, to be 
examined to that effect." (The escape here alluded to, was a 
second one made by Norton from Berwick, and which took 
place during Willoughby's absence, and whilst a letter was on 
the way from him, directing the Mayor to yield him up, as a 
matter of personal courtesy to the President at York, but not of 
submission to the authority of the Council there.) " These 
things, because they will appear unto your Lordships by the 
Mayor and his brethren's relation, I will not further trouble you 
with them. And for that part concerns myself, I most humbly 
entreat your Lordships to suspend your judgments. Labouring 



JURISDICTION OF BERWICK. 377 



to maintain her Majesty's authority in Berwick, is not to oppose 
in any other place ; which, with all humbleness, I acknowledge, 
and for which I shall be always ready to lay down my life. For 
it may please your Lordships, her Majesty's signories and do- 
minions here in Scotland, as they are divided by Tweed, so have 
they been always divided by a proper council by themselves, 
with an establishment and instructions signed by her Majesty's 
own hand, whereunto we are limited ; sometimes of old termed 
the King's Chancellor and Treasurer of his Exchequer of Scot- 
land ; sometimes especially divided by their proper authority of 
Chancery, Martial Court, and Probation of Wills, amongst them- 
selves ; bearing likewise a distinct ornament and signal of go- 
vernment by their white staves of authority. I think it hath not 
been also unknown, (with your Lordship's pardon,) that there 
hath been question of this jurisdiction between the Right Ho- 
nourable the Lord Hunsdon, and the Right Honourable the Earl 
of Huntingdon, her Majesty's Lieutenant of Yorkshire Bishopric, 
Cumberland, Westmoreland, and Northumberland, (wherein it 
was supposed Berwick stood,) though it is very well known 
there is between Northumberland and Berwick, Eland-shire, 
Norham-shire, and, as is aforesaid, the river of Tweed." Ber- 
wick, therefore, not being in either of the five counties included 
in the jurisdiction of the Lieutenant of Yorkshire, Willoughby 
contended that it had a right to claim an independent authority, 
and goes on to state, " in this controversy, as far as I can learn, 
the said late Lord Governor " (Lord Hunsdon, his predecessor,) 
" prevailed, and so held it to his dying day, not only for the 
government of the town, but for the wardenry also. I think it 
may be alleged, that some which have led her Majesty's forces 

into Scotland as absolute generals, as the Duke of Norfolk, the 

3 c 



Duke of Somerset, and such like, had power, by special commis- 
sion, to command these governments ; but I think that stretcheth 
not to fortify their pretension. I may with your Lordships' par- 
don also allege the great and gracious privilege her Majesty hath 
pleased to give her soldiers of Berwick, to be free from all 
arrests, such as I think they of York, or few towns else in Eng- 
land, have the like ; but this for the soldiery : as for the Mayor, 
I leave him to defend his own cause, more than as her Majesty's 
Councillor here, in which behalf only I stood ; and if that ho- 
nourable letter of the Lords of the Council in King Edward the 
Sixth's time, compared not amiss the privileges of this town with 
that of Calais ; for my own part, (with your Lordships' pardon,) 
let me say, that tJiey of York might as well direct their letters to 
that statef if it were English, or to them in Wales or Ireland, as 
to us, I speak not this to derogate from any authority ; for I 
acknowledge all my jurisdiction voluntary, depending only upon 
the arbitrament of my gracious sovereign, and interpretation of 
your Lordships. For that of York we contemn not, but think 
ourselves equal in the same predicament. 

*' Now for my own particular offence in the sharpness and 
severity towards their messenger — it was this : immediately upon 
my coming, he having served a missive letter upon the Mayor, 
they complaining to me the next Sabbath, I put them to the 
afternoon, when I gave him this answer : ' Sirrah, go your ways 
into my cellar, that shall be your prison at this time, and break 
your head with the best wine I have. If hereafter you come to 
serve any more of those in this nature upon any of her Majesty's 
Council here, without first making me acquainted therewith, I will 
lay you by the heels in another place; in the mean season, carry 
back your writing, for I suppose my Lord Vice-President of York, 



DEFENCE OF THE MAYOR. 379 



and the Council^ are so satisfied with my letter and proceeding^ 
that they will not hold this course with me.'' The copy of which 
letters to my Lord Vice-President and the Council there, I have 
presumed to send to your Lordships, that you would vouchsafe 
the reading, and censure me as it deserves. 

" I fear me I have already transgressed, in being too tedious 
with your Lordships, but the cause hath in part urged me to 
deliver myself of imputations. T have accordingly to your 
Lordships' pleasures, sent the copy of my patent and instructions, 
with those my reasons, and an especial servant to attend your 
Lordships' pleasure ; though I know those two worthy gentle- 
men. Sir John Carey and Mr. William Selby, both her Majesty's 
officers, being of long experience in this place, can best inform 
your Lordships at large," &c. &c.^ 

The defence of the Mayor and Corporation of Berwick, to 
which Willoughby alludes, bears the same date, and fills the 
spaces which his absence occasions in the early part of the ac- 
count : " Immediately," say they, " upon the coming of the said 
Norton to this town. Sir John Carey, Marshal, and Mr. Mus- 
grave. Master of the Ordnance, both councillors here, entreated 
the Mayor very earnestly that he would make stay, and commit 
to custody the said Norton ; for that, as the said Mr. Musgrave 
affirmed, he was escaped out of the castle of York, where he 
had been committed for debt." 

Partly to gratify these gentlemen, and partly because he pos- 
sessed no information against Norton, the Mayor committed him 
to "an honest man's house of the said town, and appointed a 
bailiff for his better guard, to attend him night and day. In the 

^ Lord Willoughby to the Privy Council, Berwick, October 29, 1600. 
State Paper Office, Borders, vol. 70. 

3 c 2 



380 



NORTON S ARREST. 



time of his restraint, a letter from the Lord Vice-President and 
the Council of York was brought by a mean fellow unknown, 
naming himself servant to the Sheriff of Northumberland, in 
which letter we were required to deliver Norton to the Sheriff of 
Northumberland, at the far end of the bridge. We demanded 
the sight of his warrant from the Sheriff ; he had none. So that 
first we were required to deliver him in a place farther than bur 
jurisdiction reached," (for it extended only to the middle of the 
bridge,) " into a place where the Sheriff had no power," (he had 
none within five miles of Berwick,) " and to a person who had no 
authority from the Sheriff." 

Being afterwards arrested in an action for debt at Berwick, 
Norton became chargeable on the town, as he was in custody 
there when the arrest took place, and the Mayor insisted that 
such charges must be satisfied before his delivery. Meanwhile, 
whilst he and the rest of the corporation were in treaty to restore 
him on payment of these dues, (a step they probably took in 
consequence of Willoughby's letter from England,) '' our pri- 
soner," say they, " before answer received from the Council of 
York, escaped without connivency or any dishonest prejudice in 
us, or in his keeper, who for that intent was examined before 
the Lord Governor and Council here, who, we trust, upon the 
hearing of the matter, did in their consciences clear both us and 
his keeper." They pray the Privy Council to " consider the 
causes that moved her gracious Majesty and her noble pro- 
genitors to grant their privileges;" and urge that "no cause or 
suit that hath his beginning here (at Berwick), cause of suit by 
bargaining or contract made here, or for offence committed here, 
have at any time been taken away from hence by jurisdiction 
of other courts, but always adjudged and ended here, as our 



WILLOUGHBY TO CECIL. 381 

use hath always been, and warranted by special words in our 
charter ^" 

Willoughby's next communication is addressed to Sir Robert 
Cecil ; and although relating to the same subject as his last, and 
recapitulating some of its arguments, it throws so much addi- 
tional light on the matter, and ends with so pathetic an allusion 
to his own consciousness of approaching dissolution, that it would 
be impossible to avoid giving it in full. It commences with the 
history of the early part of the transaction, and runs thus : 

" Most honourable Sir, — The daily testimony of your honour- 
able proceedings with me, binds me farther than I can express, 
or is fit for a letter. I hope I shall appear in this matter whereof 
I am accused towards my Lord your brother ^, the contempt of 
the Council of York, or sharpness and severity against their 
minister. The first point importeth me most, since it is a part 
of yourself, whom I am bound to honour so much. It is true, 
whilst I was at London this last summer, it pleased my Lord, 
your brother, to prevent^ me of that compliment to visit me, 
which I would willingly have done him, had not he been at 
Wimbleton, as I understood by my servant, whom I sent thither 
to that end. At which time of his Lordship's visitation, after 
many courtesies, wherein I acknowledge myself beholden to him, 
and was desirous to entertain and deserve it, he made overture 
to me of a prisoner * escaped from York, and detained at Ber- 
wick, and that the Mayor of this town had denied to send him, 

^ Mayor and Corporation of Berwick to the Privy Council, Berwick, 
October 29, 1600. State Paper Office, Borders, vol. 70. 

2 Thomas Cecil, Lord Burghley, President of the Council of York. 

3 Prevent, anticipate — from the verb prcevenio. 
^ Norton. 



382 AFFAIRS OF NORTON 



with this addition merely, that if he were thus denied, he must 
send a sergeant-at-arms to Berwick : to which I answered, that 
there was nothing in Berwick, the wardenry, nor my power, but 
he should command, not by the authority by York, (or to that 
effect,) but by the interest he had in my affections ; for I held 
my government out of that jurisdiction, and therefore if any such 
sergeant-at-arms came, I being Captain of the castle, or rather 
molehill on the bridge, we should lay all our potguns to stop his 
passage there for coming further ; and if there were any wine 
better than other, he should taste the fury of that fire ; but into 
the town he should not come. There was present at this speech 
old Mr. William Selby, our Gentleman-Porter. This passed 
pleasantly, for so was it spoken and taken ; my Lord very ho- 
nourably replying, that he wished the jurisdiction of both places 
(York and Berwick) determined, that he might neither do nor 
receive wrong ; and I concluded with my Lord to write to the 
Mayor for the prisoner ; which I did, though (as it seemed) he 
was escaped before my letters came to them. How since I have 
behaved myself in this, I refer me to my Lord Vice-President 
and Sir Thomas Fairfax, who, whilst I lay sick at Malton, had 
conference with me in that, where and when I thought I had 
satisfied them that the first escape from the jailor of York could 
not secondarily be laid on the Mayor of Berwick, who received 
him by another procurement, causa indicta, and, whether legi- 
timate or not, sub judice lis, even in that point. All ways, the 
matter he was imprisoned for was but debt, which his first jailor 
upon his escape was to answer ; and then the Mayor, upon his 
second escape, was not likely by law to have much matter 
enforced against him. But in this T protest I meant not to 
diminish any point of just accusation against him ; but since the 



AND BERWICK. 383 



final end could be no greater than answering a debt which was 
first to be satisfied against the jailor of York, I thought it more 
fit for common quiet it should be passed over than continued ; 
since the Mayor was not only, as a Mayor, during his time 
a privileged person, but also a councillor of her Majesty's in 
Berwick ; which would breed a further question than that of 
Norton's escape, for the prerogative of York's Council between 
them and her Majesty's Governor and Council of Berwick, being 
none of the five shires or provinces wherein the Council of York 
hath jurisdiction, and themselves likewise subalternal judges. 
And that whereas the white staves of Berwick seemed a distinct 
ornament of privileged jurisdiction from such power, it was 
drawn to this head between us, that pleas of burgesses in this 
town for titles or lands in Northumberland, might be tried with 
them at York, and so their letters, missives, and processes good 
here. But for free burgesses and soldiery of the town, the one 
to be tried by their charter, the other by her Majesty's signed, 
established, and privileged authority of government. Hereupon 
I thought all had slept ; but the very first night I came to Ber- 
wick, the Mayor was summoned by their minister to make his 
personal appearance at York, whereof they complained to me, 
the next day, being the Sabbath, and I deferred to deal in the 
matter, for observing Divine service, till the afternoon, when 
riding forth to meet Sesford, who attended me, as I formerly 
advertised you, the fellow ^ desiring to know my pleasure, my 
threats were these, which are so much aggravated for sharpness 
and severity in me." (And here he repeats the speech which 
has already been given in his letter to the Council.) 



^ The messenger from York. 



"This is justly and faithfully to my remembrance, and theirs 
at that time with me, my whole proceeding in that action, how- 
soever the contrary be sworn. I beseech you. Sir, weigh my 
part in this ; let the Mayor answer his. I am brought in ques- 
tion for defending her Majesty's dominions here in Scotland ; of 
footing, I hope God shall never fail, but rather extend her great 
empire daily, and increase the privilege of a councillor and qua- 
lity of a governor. Pardon me here. Sir, to say, without vain 
glory, or contempt of my Lord your brother, whom I honour, 
that having served her Majesty in chief in those honourable 
places I have done, I would be loth to be brought down like a 
degraded captain to a lieutenant's place, unless it were under 
some principal councillor to her Majesty. And I presume, not 
without reason, my Lord, your brother, would do the like to me. 
And truly. Sir, desiring to be exempted from any man's com- 
mand in that kind, I writ to him formerly concerning that point, 
for I shall willinglier resign my place than my reputation. It is 
not unknown my Lord Chamberlain likewise prevailed in this 
point against my Lord of Huntingdon ; my patent will make 
plain unto all, that I have the same power he had, or my Lord 
of Bedford before him. If I be thought unworthy of it, I shall 
desire rather vacare cum dignitate, than to serve disgraced. The 
Council here, too, are astonished to conceive that the Council of 
York should have authority over them, being both subalternal 
councils ; and as it doth appear, by letters heretofore written 
from the honourable Lords of the Council in King Edward the 
Sixth's time, that we are compared with the privileges of Calais, 
so we suppose their authority might extend as well to send writs 
to Calais, if it were English, to the Deputy in Ireland, or to the 
President of Wales, as to the Governor and Councillor of Ber- 



willoughby's own condition. 385 

wick. For the burgesses, I leave them to their charter, whereof 
I doubt not they will in general satisfy their Lordships, and you 
in particular. And I pray you, Sir, believe me, that, honouring 
you, as I have infinite cause, so there is nothing wherein I may 
give respect to my Lord your brother, mine own honour and 
reputation saved, but I would marvellous willingly observe it. 
And I know not how his Lordship may be sinisterly employed 
against me, to bring me thus in question, but I neither have nor 
will willingly give him any just cause of offence ; and for the 
Council of York, being thereof a member myself, I would not 
yield them btt like due regard, saving that I am bound by a 
deeper obligation and oath to this place wherein I serve. Your 
noble wisdom, I doubt not, will discern of all these things, and 
judge of me but as I deserve. I hoist no sails to ambitious 
winds ; I love and seek to fashion myself to the royal and wise 
example of my prince and her government, which is peaceable. 
Besides, my end summons me, which cannot he long before I 
account to the Highest, whom I beseech to preserve you as a 
notable instrument and an upright servant to Him, her Majesty, 
and the State \" 

Whilst, however, Willoughby was thus asserting that inde- 
pendence of Berwick, for which he certainly had strong and rea- 
sonable arguments, and which he thought it important for the 
Queen's service to uphold ^, the same hot opposition was con- 

1 Lord Willoughby to Sir R. Cecil, Berwick, the 29th of October, 1600. 
State Paper Office, Borders, vol. 70. 

2 Up to a very late period (if not at that of Willoughby's government) 
many acts of parliament were extended in their operation to " our kingdom 
of England and Wales, and our town of Berwick-on-Tweed." However, 
shortly after the death of Willoughby, the Privy Council adjudged the 

3 D 



386 



SELBY TO 



tinued to his measures for the internal government of his charge. 
From the period of his return from the English court, after an 
absence which lasted about six months, he appears to have been 
engaged in a perpetual contention, and to have been accused by 
his adversaries of an overweening ambition, and longing for 
absolute power, whilst his own thoughts were continually dwell- 
ing on the approaching close to him of all worldly prospects. It 
is improbable that such feelings should be compatible with any 
plans of selfish aggrandizement, although the irritability of ill 
health may have occasioned a petulance of expression, scarcely to 
be wondered at in one thus chained up to the last moment to a 
charge, which was rendered irksome by opposition and (it may 
be added) the disloyalty of faction. Meanwhile Mr. William 
Selby thus follows up his old complaint of arbitrary encroach- 
ments on the part of the Lord Governor, and on the 30th of 
October writes the annexed letter to Sir Robert Cecil : 

" By my last letter, which was very lately, I delivered my 
opinion of the monopoly of authority sought to be usurped by my 
Lord Governor, which is now no longer carried in clouds, but 
plainly professed and sought to be established by sentence and 
opinion of councils of war, to whom issues are presented in- 
quirable by them, and to make a sure foundation whereon the 
whole frame may safely stand. The first issue is, whether the 
Lord Governor may, by the words of the fourth article of the 
new establishment, convene a council of war : the issue is found 
in the affirmative in a case of Mr. Musgrave's ; how improperly, 
your honour can judge. This groundwork laid, Mr. Musgrave 

authority of the Council at York to be paramount to that of Berwick, which 
decision surely proves that in his timfe the matter was at least doubtful. 
(See Co. Reg.) 



SIR ROBERT CECIL. 387 



being Master of the Ordnance, a councillor and principal officer, 
is again convented before a second council : the articles offered 
against him by my Lord, the manner of the proceeding, and their 
sentences, I refer to his own letters. Which plain and open 
going on in this course, the Lord Governor never enterprised 
before Sir William Bowes his coming hither, whose judgment 
and conscience blinded with malice against Mr. Musgrave, serv- 
eth for a whetstone to make my Lord run faster, that with run- 
ning toward the goal of ambition is almost out of breath. But 
malice is not the only mover of our Treasurer ; for the secret 
is, if I have 'any insight into his purpose, to soothe up and 
further my Lord in his desire of absolute rule, that my Lord may 
requite his kindness, by covering with his countenance his broken 
pays and ill-payments, if for lack of money any happen to be, as 
is much feared by many." Rather a vague accusation against 
the Treasurer, seeing the writer is not yet sure that there will be 
any failure of payment. " This gentleman's carriage is so per- 
emptory and spiteful to those he loveth not, so full of ostentation 
to all, and so base in gross flattery and observance to my Lord 
Governor, that I wish there were in him less profession and more 
piety, fewer protestations and more performances, more religion 
with less show ; and, lastly, that he would do better and speak 
worse. If these two great officers hold on this course, the 
government of the one, and the pays of the other, will undo this 
town. Herein I wish my judgment may fail, and that I may 
prove a false prophet. Mr. Musgrave is the first councillor that 
hath been ordered, in this manner since Berwick was English, 
whose peril and disgraceful usage, arising from picked causes, 
and in their nature very mean, together with my Lord Governor's 

terrible words, showing the power and effect of martial law, 

3 D 2 



388 



APPROVAL OF WILLOUGHBY 



putteth in fear the most assured, and maketh the boldest to 
shrink. Finally, it bringeth her Majesty's councillors of this 
town into open contempt, when they shall be thus tried and 
arraigned, as it were, by their inferiors, who dare find no other 
issues than they know will be pleasing to my Lord, on whose 
will their undoing or preferment solely dependeth ; to that his 
Lordship is party, appointer of the Council, judge, and rewarder. 
These things I may not with my duty conceal, albeit I would 
gladly forbear to trouble your honour," &c. &c.^ 

The same writer makes his own apology for troubling the 
Secretary with another letter on the 1st of November, beginning 
thus : 

" I am sorry that our hard fortunes compelleth me to be so 
unmannerly as to trouble your honour with three letters in three 
days. It pleased my Lord Governor to compel me to be of a 
council of war for decision of a controversy betwixt his Lordship 
and the Master of the Ordnance. They all found for my Lord. 
I desired to deliver my opinion in writing, which I send your 
honour herewith, being contradictory to the rest, whereby your 
honour may perceive my Lord's proceeding, my advice to his 
Lordship, my unwillingness ; besides, upon my humble request, 
(which is omitted,) his Lordship granted me liberty of speech 
and opinion. How his Lordship expostulated with me on one 
part of my opinion, with his letter, message, and my answers, are 
here within ^, whereby your honour may see how dangerous it is 



1 Sir William Selby to Sir Robert Cecil, Berwick, October 30, 1600. 
State Paper Office, Borders, vol. 70. 

2 Selby's opinion, with the letters and messages which passed between 
him and Lord Willoughby, concerning a passage in that opinion which Lord 



BY THE COUNCIL OF WAR. 389 



to contradict the will of a Lord Governor, I do not see that her 
Majesty needeth any other officer or councillor here, except it be 
the Treasurer to bring money. I speak the truth according to 
my conscience and understanding ; and if men in council may 
not speak freely, in vain are they called. This particular may 
give your honour a taste of our general government, and of the 
estate we live in. We that have been brought up at home, and 
have better skill to speak truth plainly and honestly, than to 
speak with such respective compliments as are fetched from 
foreign parts, wherewith our home simplicity is not yet inured, 
are now come to that point, that we do neither speak nor write 
for fear of exceptions, our speeches racked, forced, and construed 
to our disgrace, that we are compelled to stand mute ; and in 
this kind Mr. Treasurer is much more captious than my Lord 
himself, and a great approver of these new councils of war. Of 
these matters I am weary, and so afraid, that I have interested 
my Lord Governor to spare my service, as one whose education 
hath not been military, and therefore unskilful for these employ- 
ments. If I should come to Council, and speak any thing that 
might by cunning be drawn to any hard interpretation, I should 
be in danger of a council of war, and found culpable either of 
disobedience or mutiny; and then I know not how they would 
use me, for their courses are desperate. If they had care of 
their own credits, or feared higher authority, they would not 
adventure thus. I fear daily to be quarrelled or injured by 

Willoughby objected to, are extant in the State Paper Office. The passage 
runs thus : " T thought," said Selby, " I could not well justify the jo inin g of 
myself with this unkno-^Ti Coimcil, in prejudice of her Majesty's ordinance, 
and in derogation from the Council of War of her Majesty's own election 
and establishment." 



390 



SELBY TO CECIL. 



some of his Lordship's followers. As I found myself greatly 
bounden to your honour for your honourable favour in preferring 
me to this place, so I shall take myself much more bounden, if 
your honour will be pleased to obtain for me, at her Majesty's 
hand, that my service here, which standeth in no stead, may be 
spared, and that I may retire myself; for I protest, in the pre- 
sence of God, that I wish rather to serve in the meanest place 
your honour may think me fit for in these parts, than be ad- 
vanced both to credit and commodity under this government. 

" I might write many other things, but they would spend 
more time than your honour can spare. We are called to ac- 
compt before my Lord, at the instance of Sir William Bowes, 
for our advice and concurrency in council with Sir John Carey, 
in my Lord's absence, about the making of the last Midsummer 
pay ; which sore the Treasurer with all his cunning cannot salve, 
albeit he gladly would," &c. &c.^ 

It is very probable that the absence of the Lord Governor 
might have introduced much disorder and confusion into the 
garrison of Berwick, which called loudly on his return for his 
assumption of full military command, — a thing hitherto unknown 
and unfelt in those parts, and as little understood ^. On the 22nd 
of November, one of his own straightforward letters demands, 
with his usual openness and confidence, a fair and candid accusa- 
tion, that he may make a true and satisfactory reply to the 
charges against him ; but is preceded by another, characteristic 
and curious, and more " merry," as he terms it, than his cor- 



' Mr. William Selby to Sir Robert Cecil, Berwick, November 1, 1600. 
State Paper Office, Borders, vol. 70. 

2 Perhaps it might have been even startling to persons unaccustomed to 
the authority of a General. 



THE KING OF DENMARK. 391 



respondence is wont to be. " I had not thought," he writes to 
Cecil, ' ■ to have sent you these Scotch news, having troubled you 
with most of these formerly, (their worth, like the air here, cold,) 
but there arriving here a messenger from the King of Denmark 
to the Queen of Scots \ I took some pains, after he had been 
well treated with drink, to inquire of him somewhat thence. He 
saith, he translated the treatise of Gowrie's death into Dutch, 
sent from the King of Scots to the King of Denmark, who never 
vouchsafed to read it, but gave it to the Queen Mother there." 
Not a very complimentary notice of the escape of his son-in-law 
from danger. " The said King," the messenger also informed 
him, " hath sent into Hungary for some principal chiefs to attend 
him on his journey from Scotland, whither he is resolved to go 
this summer (probably to visit his daughter). The Duke of 
Brunswick hath promised to accompany him. He hath a-building 
a new ship, very glorious, framed by his own direction, of some 
two thousand tons ; and fifteen other of his best ships he hath 
destined to the same. But the conclusions of full cups have oft 
as little success as the vessels, liquor left in them. He speaks 
much of the King's fortifying in Dithmarsh, to stop the passage 
to Hamburgh of forty thousand armours provided, besides five 
hundred French arms for horsemen ; that they brought sundry 
French artizans there to make French pistols, having reduced 
their Dutch to that fashion. The man is sensible, and some 
likelihood of what he says to be true in intention ; but though 
they arm French, I think their effects will be homelike Dutch ; 
but if they were as cunning to surprise princes, as the French be 
nimble for towns, they might hap make the King seek his wife 

^ Anne of Denmark, Queen of James the Sixth. 



and son. I beseech you, Sir, pardon my merry bolt ; I do not, 
I protest, reach at enterprises, but seeing a mist, stumble a 
little more boldly where I have so honourable a friend to inter- 
pret my slip ; by virtue of which I must intreat in lieu of better 
returns that occasion may make me happy to yield you, to accept 
these, and myself as 

" Yours most assured to command, 

" P. WiLLUGHBY \ 

"Berwick, the 18th of November." 

On the 22nd he thus addresses the Earl of Nottingham ^ and 
Sir R. Cecil : 

" It may please you to understand I received your Lordship's 
and Mr. Secretary's letters, commanding me to send up Sir Wil- 
liam Eure, concerning these unlucky disturbances here amongst 
our Council, which I received the 21st of this instant. I have 
hastened him what I could ; but being not universally acquainted 
with these causes, I have had little leisure to inform him for my 
defence, as the necessity of the place I hold, and my reputation 
interested, (matters of great importance to me,) do require. I 
should condemn myself much, having always lived with soldiers, 
to whose report I commend me, if I should now in a town of 
war, as this is, give any just occasion of offence to these gentle- 
men councillors, though I may not flatter them so much as to 
call them all soldiers, for then I know they would not have varied 
with me about my duty, I will say little, but refer all to trial ; 
persuading myself I shall make that part of your Lordship's 
letter clear, that whosoever herein hath done anything dishonour- 

^ Lord Willoughby to Sir R. Cecil. State Paper Office, Borders, vol. 70. 
2 Lord High Admiral of England. 



WILLOUGHBY TO THE QUEEN. 



393 



able to the Queen, or notorious to the opposite, it is not I, who 
offered them in all quietness, before their own friends, privately 
to yield to their reasons, if they were better than mine, or they 
not to contend with me, if by judgment of such their friends 
mine were fitter for the service. But this they refused, as I am 
able to prove by the Mayor of the town, akin to the chief of 
them, and by a very learned preacher, who was employed in that 
behalf, and I had much ado to win them, that your Lordship and 
Mr. Secretary might determine it, as will appear by witnesses 
written. I humbly beseech your Lordship, that no general ac- 
cusations without proofs may be admitted against me, for there 
is no innocency but may be so wronged. But whosoever will 
charge me, let him write it under his hand, and if I sufficiently 
clear not myself in writing likewise, let me undergo the disgi-ace 
and shame ; and in the mean time all ill opinions of me may be 
suspended, for I have set before mine eyes no other ends of 
gaining or ambition, but only my duty to her Majesty and coun- 
try, my respect to deserve well of such honourable persons as 
yourselves, and to shut up my days with honest reputations," 
&c. &c.' 



His next explanation addresses the Queen herself: 

" Most sacred and dread Sovereign, — I have forborne and 
endeavoured all the means I could possibly devise, rather than 
have presented unto your Majesty the unpleasing division and 
defects of your garrison here ; holding myself most unfortunate, 
that having been bred all my life in the court and services of so 
incomparable a Queen, wherein God hath blessed me to pass the 

' Lord Willoughby to the Earl of Nottingham and Sir Robert Cecil, 
Berwick, November 22, 1600. 

3 E 



394 



WILLOUGHBY TO 



same without touch or imputation of the most malicious, I should 
now be brought in question. I will not plead my faith, nor my 
deserts, knowing them all too little for such a sovereign, and 
which perhaps some, not the best disposed, whilst I have sought 
to be an observer of your Majesty's strait commandments, have 
thought this the fittest time (myself and fortunes weak) to take 
exceptions to me, that could not do it to my integrity. The 
charge your Majesty out of your most gracious good opinion 
hath laid upon me here is very great ; dangerous for them with- 
out, curious for them within ; who, having had a government of 
another nature than your Majesty's establishment and private 
letters intended, have thought much, after such liberty, at the 
very opinion of my proceeding to accomplish your high pleasure 
and service : at my first arrival, with libels ; at my return now 
from the court, by breaking out into these occasions, suspecting 
perhaps by prevention (if I had been well) of some inquiry of the 
state of the garrison, which at this time, for any thing I can dis- 
cern, standeth thus. Your Majesty's charge divided amongst us 
all, and is very great, our orders broken, every man presumeth 
of himself, whether out of his own pride, former custom, or 
iniquity of time, I know not, because I am not held competent 
by them to control, but be controlled ; which I could well en- 
dure, if my faults were truly applied unto me. 

" Concerning the military discipline, I will not assume to my- 
self much ; yet I dare say (as trained thereunto by your Ma- 
jesty) I have seen more in camps than some of them who have 
not been far from home, nor near to yourself, the fountain of all 
excellency, to derive their such experience. Indeed, it is true 
this place had wont to have approved and excellent governors, 
councillors, and soldiers ; to such I am sure my goodwill would 



THE QUEEN. 395 



have received a better interpretation than now it doth. But if I 
have failed therein in duty, it hath been but in tolerance, expect- 
ing amendments by some easier ways, than such courses as they 
already do construe sharp. I am sure I have defrauded no man 
of his right ; I have sold no pays, made no benefit of your 
Majesty's soldiery ; trained them, when I was able, more than 
heretofore accustomed ; have placed no clans here, or factions of 
mine own ; have not reduced the chief of them to my servants, 
followers, or friends, so as the garrison might consist for the 
most part of such ; which whether I do or no, I leave to proof, 
having altered little since my time. 

" In judicial causes I have ever sought, (as the Council can 
bear me witness,) by persuasions rather than by censures, to 
observe your Majesty's justice and equity amongst your people 
here ; and the question arising, hath rather been of exceptions to 
my power, than to my will in readiness. 

" Where I have sought to inquire into your Majesty's offices 
of expense, (as the Ordnance, a most chargeable office to your 
Majesty here,) T have been opposed by claim of particular autho- 
rity, unto the diligence and safety accustomed for the guard of 
other towns, whereunto likewise they are tied unto this place 
by oath, they pretend toleration from higher powers than my- 
self. If I propound in Council, even in the least trifles, I am 
opposed. 

" These things my duty to your Majesty hath hitherto made 
me tolerate, lest my proceedings might have been thought more 
partial to myself than proper to your highness's service. De- 
siring to use no light but such as I might immediately receive 
from your sacred self, the glorious sun of monarchy, I shall not 

hide what it pleaseth those rayouns to yield me, nor otherwise 

3 E 2 



396 



MISSION OF 



but be exceeding well contented with mine own obscure body, 
even in the lowest sphere your divine pleasure shall place me ; 
for I wish no other motion nor being, my desires wedded to 
nothing but to prostrate myself at your sacred Majesty's feet, as 
a serviceable soldier, in what use may be made of me, or as a 
true beadsman in the most proper course of my devout supplica- 
tions, for the flourishing and incomparable prosperity of your 
Majesty and estate. Most humbly beseeching you to accept 
these (by the hands of this noble gentleman ', appointed by your 
commandment for further report) as a relation of duty, no accu- 
sation, but an humble petition I may exactly be tried, and if I 
be found otherwise, to lose the high favour of your Majesty, 
which is like dear to me as my soul. 

" Your most sacred Majesty's most humble 
loyal vassal and servant, 

" P. WiLLOUGHBY ^" 



The Queen had become deeply interested in the complaints 
and protestations she received from her garrison of Berwick, and 
impatient of any delay on the part of the messengers whom she 
expected from thence. On the present occasion she looked 
eagerly for the arrival of Sir William Eure, charged with Wil- 
loughby's despatches ; and who, having set out on his journey 
on the 24th, had not appeared in her presence on the 28th. Her 
Lords of the Privy Council wrote to the Governor on the sub- 
ject, who entreated them to lay before the Queen, that eight 
days was the usual time taken by the posts at that season of the 

1 Sir William Eure. 

2 Lord WUloughby to Queen Elizabeth, Berwick, November 22, 16*00. 
State Paper Office, Borders, vol. 70. 



year ; to which when were added the necessary delays of prepa- 
ration, "the extraordinary foulness of the way, and his own weak 
health," he hoped they would be convinced that Sir William 
Eure could not have arrived when they last wrote, and that he 
would "present himself with all dutiful expedition." 

The Privy Council had also given Willoughby to understand, 
that "her Majesty had grown exceeding sensible of these strange 
distractions, in respect it would increase the scorns of her go- 
vernment," &c. " T answer," replies Willoughby, " it is to me 
bitterer than death, that after so many disgraceful and injurious 
oppositions received in matter of my government, that a place so 
important, so remote from trial, so much in the eye of the oppo- 
site \ myself having been so often honoured with her highness' 
trust in martial services, should now in the closing of my days be 
brought in question, not only whether I have tolerable martial 
government, but whether I have any respect of duty to my dear 
sovereign's honour, her peace, and garrison ; nay, whether I 
want not religion, common honesty, and ordinary reason, to forge 
to myself vain titles, to face councils and whole garrisons against 
known laws and public oaths, with many more mentioned in Mr. 
Musgrave's complaint ; and those not now kept within the walls 
of Berwick, but as it seemeth presented to her royal Majesty, 
to the whole Council of State, and published both in court 
and country, to my deeper touch and grief than my pen must 
express ; wherein that I should be once named to a thing that 
my nature so much abhorreth, I leave (but yet earnestly recom- 
mend) to that sacred hand which hath only power to relieve 
me." The grief he thus strongly expresses was increased by the 

1 The opposite neighbour, the Scotch. 



\ 



398 



LETTER TO THE COUNCIL. 



facility which he felt his enemies enjoyed of pleading their cause 
in person with the Queen. " I am more perplexed, because 
mine adversaries have (as you write) the opportunity of presence, 
time, and place, where I can do no other than to commit much 
more than myself to papers and solicitations of persons, neither 
sufficiently acquainted with my proceedings, neither yet inured 
with the majesty and presence of such as must give sentence. 
And herein though I have done my best to write with diligence, 
yet cannot I satisfy myself but that either tediousness may dis- 
please, my too frequent packets may encumber, or want of well- 
timed showing my answers to the particular informations, dis- 
advantage me ; a slowness of replying, by distance of place, 
shall both cast and hold me still behind. 

" Your Lordships write further, that many here pretend that I 
am so full of innovations in the martial discipline, that it breed- 
eth nothing but confusion. I answer, that I cast myself down at 
her Majesty's feet with supplication for trial, that being either 
found such or near such as I am charged to be, I may not only 
resign my place into her gracious hand, but that my life and 
lands may weigh for my fault, only because I assure myself that 
these accusations are but provisionally received. I do eftsoons 
most humbly intreat, that the said innovation may be particularly 
averred under the informer's hand, and that then they may be 
sent to me in writing; thereafter, also examined with my an- 
swers, and judged definitively. And because I learn from the 
lawyers, that in generalihus inest dolus, finding it so in this last 
complaint, my request is, that the charges against me may not 
pass in generalities, but specified in my direct actions, notifying 
the due circumstances necessary to prove matter of fact against 



me. 



FRESH ANNOYANCE. 399 



With this letter Willoughby forwarded a curious document, 
still extant ^ Having made extracts from Musgrave's general 
imputations, he transcribed them in one column, placing opposite 
to each his replies, and demands that particular proofs to each 
charge may be afforded by the Master of the Ordnance, in his 
own handwriting, that so he may clear himself or bear the 
blame. " In the meantime," he adds, " I humbly intreat pardon, 
if confidently I anticipate thus much, out of my knowledge of us 
both ; namely, that myself shall be found free of these his odious 
imputations, and all other undutiful or unsoldierly innovations 
surmised against me ; and I shall show him merely ignorant of 
military discipline, factious, mutinous, unfaithful in the use of his 
place, quarrelous with his preceders, wittingly and often break- 
ing his martial oath, and an untrue slanderer of divers of us, his 
conversers and fellows in arms. But lest I might dim mine own 
clearness by casting that upon him which peradventure may be 
due to others as well as himself, I can be content to admit him^ 
his best lustre, until his own hand in sort aforesaid may better 
discover the truth for all parties ; nothing doubting but the sove- 
reign justice will (for the honour and right to itself) make the 
world see what is right and wrong," &c. &c.^ 

A fresh incident now occurred, which seems to have put a 
finishing stroke to the annoyance and perplexity of Willoughby ; 
and under the pressure of feelings wound up to a high pitch of 
irritation, he thus writes to Sir Robert Cecil : 

" Sir, — There was one Johnston of Johnston, a scholar that 

1 In the State Paper Office. 

2 Lord Willoughby to the Privy Council, Berwick, December 6, 1600. 
State Paper Office, Borders, vol. 70. 



was with my sons in France, and taught them their first rudi- 
ments of learning, preferred to me some ten years since by one 
Newcomb, appertaining to my Lord Buckhurst. I was willing 
to have dealt with this man about some accounts of my sons, and 
arrears due to him, and therefore (at that time simply ignorant of 
these accidents) sent to him to come over ; whereunto he sent 
me this answer, together with Mr. Nicholson's packet, which I 
send herewith." 

The letter from Johnston, which he here alludes to, had been 
written from Edinburgh on the 8th of December, and alleges as 
a reason for not coming over to Berwick, that such a step might 
be misconstrued at James's court. He had heard that " some 
have suggested to the King, that Lord Willoughby was the only 
mean the Earl's brother ^ hath in England ; and undoubtedly 
such evil-disposed persons would suggest likewise, that he (John- 
ston) did traffic in that negotiation." 

In short, the King of Scotland was suspicious. " I am held," 
continues Willoughby, " perilous in Scotland, and so I had ad- 
vice of a person of good quality. It is enough for me that my 
heart bears me record I am honest to England. If I were fur- 
ther from the tempestuousness of Cheviot Hills, and were once 
retired from this accursed country whence the sun is so removed, 
I would not change my homeliest hermitage for the highest pa- 
lace there. In the mean season give me leave to commend and 
pray for your happiness, that are blessed with the sun of the 
south ; and that one rayon of such brightness may deliver me 
from this darkness here^." 



^ Quaere, Earl Gowrie ? 

2 Lord Willoughby to Sir Robert Cecil, Berwick, December 12, 1600. 
State Paper Office, Borders, vol. 70. 



THE MASTER OF THE ORDNANCE, 401 



Four days after this burst of wounded feeling, the following 
consolatory epistle was addressed to the Governor by Lord 
Nottingham and Sir Robert Cecil ; and how well it succeeded 
in bringing comfort to the generous-minded invalid, will appear 
in the answer it elicited : 

" The Earl of Nottingham and Sir Robert Cecil to Lord 
Willoughby. 

*' After our very hearty commendations to your Lordship, 
although we would have been right glad (even at this time) 
definitively to have set down our opinions and expositions of 
those questions which have wrought the government of that town 
to so great a disorder, yet we have been constrained to attend so 
many other great and weighty consultations, as we doubt not but 
your own wisdom will sufficiently satisfy your mind concerning 
our deferring of the same. But to the intent you may be assured 
that her Majesty is as desirous to give you all the rights and 
authority that do belong to your place, as much as ever to any, 
we do promise you that (after some few days are overpast) we 
will send you our opinions in all the things which we do know to 
have been in question. And now for the present, for your fur- 
ther satisfaction, that the world may take notice that her Majesty 
will allow of no person that shall contemptuously demean himself 
towards you, her Majesty hath committed the Master of the Ord^ 
nance to the Fleet. And further, because there runneth so gene- 
ral a report which is given forth, that your weakness of body 
doth daily increase, even so far as it is here reported, that you 
should be in danger, for which her Majesty is not a little sorry, 
it hath pleased her with all expedition to send down Sir John 

Carey, the better to assist your Lordship in her Majesty's ser- 

3 F 



402 Elizabeth's gracious messages. 

vice. Into which point, seeing we are fallen, we must now let 
you understand that her Majesty persuades herself so assuredly 
of your temper and judgment^ conjoined with your affection to her 
service^ as no particular unkindness shall make you any way 
unwilling to concur, for the public, with any man, for her Ma- 
jesty's service ; yea, though there were the greatest mislike or 
quarrel. Wherein although we do assure you that we do find 
Sir John Carey so fully resolved to concur with you in all things 
whatsoever that may concern her Majesty's service, or give you 
all your dues without prejudice to any thing of his place, as we 
have thought it superfluous to speak of that point at all ; yet be- 
cause you may know with what mind this gentleman comes down 
as well as we do, we thought fit to touch it by the way, and to let 
your Lordship know how much her Majesty desireth to under- 
stand of your good health and recovery ; which being as much 
as is requisite to write unto you for the present, we commit your 
Lordship to God's protection. From the Court at Whitehall, 

this — day of , 1600 \ 

" Your Lordship's very loving friends," &c. 

To this Lord Willoughby gratefully and touchingly answers 
thus : 

" May it please your Lordships, — Your Lordships last, of the 
14th, found me extraordinarily bound to my bed, where I have 
attended the good hand of God, with earnest desire that I might 
be present at the musters now in hand, to have reformed, if I 
might be able, sundry abuses too long practised in this garrison, 
against her Majesty's ordinances, and the great impeachment of 

1 Earl of Nottingham and Sir Robert Cecil to Lord Willoughby, Decem- 
ber 14, 1600. State Paper Office, Borders, vol. 70. 



WILLOUGHBY S LOYALTY. 



403 



her Majesty's service in this place. But now I find mine estate 
such as I am enforced to commit that service to such assistants 
as I have here to be ordered with the best instructions which I 
can give for the time. 

" Her Majesty's most royal and gracious comfort given unto 
me by your Lordships' letters, such as I must acknowledge to 
have been at all times heretofore most favourably extended 
towards me, as by the excellency of itself, so by the timing 
thereof in these my manifold distresses of my government, my 
honour, and my health, it hath brought me the greatest joy that 
this earth can give ; so hath it racked my sick heart with the 
diversity of these thoughts ; namely, being distracted betwixt a 
desire to die in the contentment I have received by her Majesty's 
grace, and so happily to leave this wretched world to itself; and 
on the other side, a desire to live to increase my merit towards 
my sacred sovereign, and clearly to acquit myself of all imputa- 
tion which can be objected against me, on her highness' behalf. 
This distraction is yet further augmented by this, that when I 
search my heart to express some proportionable thankfulness, I 
find that to be so far beyond the limits of my power, as I am 
enforced to arrest myself in this thought : if I die, my soul shall 
bless the comfort and the comforter ; if I live, my actions shall 
make good that zealous loyalty to her gracious Majesty, which 
words can do no other but too weakly express. 

" If in noting the particulars of your Lordship's letters, I shall 
err in this distemperate estate of my sickness, wherein nights 
and days are both alike to me ; or if in those my former, any 
thing have been observed too much tasting my grief both of body 
and mind, I do most humbly crave pardon of her royal Majesty, 
and do instantly beseech your Lordships, out of your wisdoms 

3 F 2 



404 LETTERS TO NOTTINGHAM 

and favour, to excuse it. And because the former offer for 
resignation by me made of my place, even in mine own acknow- 
ledgment, stands need chiefly of a gracious interpretation to be 
made thereof by her Majesty, then also a dutiful accompt to be 
thereof given by me ; as it hath already received the former by 
her princely bounty ; so also what therein remaineth unsatisfied 
for my part, I do humbly entreat your Lordships to present unto 
her highness on my behalf, as followeth : 

" As I have always desired so, and so long only, to live as to 
do her service, so was it most likely that the place which now I 
hold, should more properly have fitted my ability to serve her 
highness, as best agreeable to my experience and training ; now 
if that my hope and expectation were frustrated either by my 
fault or feebleness, true thankfulness can do no less than plainly 
to acknowledge and dutifully to bear the imperfections of itself, 
ever preferring and preserving the right where it is due, yea, and 
so far to tender it, as to restore it untainted to that unspotted 
hand which gave it first. I confess myself most loth to be 
found in fault, and therefore do inwardly joy in that justice 
which your Lordships' letter willeth me to expect ; but in very 
truth my feebleness is such by my want of health, that if I 
should not confess myself too weak to bear the continual and 
tumultuous charge of this government, I should sin against God, 
her Majesty, and myself. Nevertheless, as myself is last and 
least worth respecting this proposition, so shall I most willingly 
and wholly depend upon whatsoever God and her Majesty 
may be pleased to determine on me and mine. And thus ac- 
knowledging with all humble and affectionate thankfulness your 
Lordships' great and honourable favours towards me, in present- 
ing these my humble petitions unto her Majesty, and tendering 



AND TO CECIL. 405 



her royal comforts unto me, I rest, commending the happiness of 
her highness' government, and therein the honour of you her 
ministers, even as my own soul, to God, the fountain of all per- 
fection," &c. &c.^ 

This was on the 22nd of December ; and in the February of 
the year following, Willoughby writes word, that being " credibly 
informed that Captain Selby," one of the garrison at Berwick, 
who " went thence very contemptuously without his leave," was 
an actor in a late conspiracy ; and, as he continues, " I am in- 
formed he escaped and fled into Scotland, where he now remain- 
eth, for which his offence, being of so high a nature, whatsoever 
his contempts have been to me, I have according to the establish- 
ment (with the advice of Sir William Bowes) displaced him of 
that his captainship, and bestowed the same upon my cousin, 
John Guevara, a gentleman well known to you, and one that 
served her Majesty faithfully, as well to reward his desert in 
taking Ashfield, to entertain him until it please her Majesty to 
confer some better place on him, and to give hope and encou- 
ragement to others to be forward in service, as to meet with the 
scorn of our opposites for the small reward of suchlike services." 
"If," he adds, " I shall be able to pleasure no well deserver, I 
shall be very unfit to serve her Majesty in this place"." 

Lord Willoughby's next letter does not concern himself, but is 
valuable to his biographer, as expressive of his tone of feeling, 
and especially as to the subject of w^hich it treats, — the rash and 

^ Lord Willoughby to the Earl of Nottingham and Sir R. Cecil. State 
Paper Office, Borders, vol. 70. The date is Berwick, Dec. 22, 1600. For an 
account of his fees as Governor during this year, see Appendix, art. SS. 

2 Lord Willoughby to Sir R. Cecil, Berwick, February 26, 160L State 
Paper Office, Borders, vol. 71 • 



406 



NOTICE OF 



ill-concerted rebellion of the ill-fated Earl of Essex. He thanks 
Sir Robert Cecil for his honourable proceedings towards him in 
all things, and, lastly, for " the freeness of his courtesey, that 
would enlarge unto me (by so w-ished a reporter) this monster of 
a rebellious accident;'' and then breaks forth into expressions of 
regard towards the perpetrator of the treason, coupled with horror 
of the act itself : 

" For the man," he writes, " that acted this late tragedy, I 
must confess I loved his person and good parts, being adorned 
with the favour of a wise prince and high fortune, as I should 
have done any other that had been seasoned w^ith the same gifts, 
and in the same manner. I may more freely say I loved him, 
because it is not unknow^n when I sought the Master of the 
Ordnanceship, he crossed me, and in my journey into France 
was most opposite against me ; so that my affections to him were 
not dependences, but attributed to those I conceived his virtues. 
This opinion I held usque ad aras ; but God, the record of all 
inward consciences, knows there I would have left him ; and the 
same God hath in nothing more showed Himself the Lord of 
hosts and armies, and testified the Divinity of his works, than 
making so glorious a Satrapas to project so vainly ; as even his 
his own desires, if he had obtained them, must have been his 
death. For how could he imagine all England would have been 
so besotted, that none durst have acted the like tragedy on 
him, for the delivery of so gracious a prince, as was formerly 
effected on the Duke of Guise ? and as he handled this, it was so 
far from resolution, as God is to be praised that took from him 
his spirit of understanding, courage, and execution. I could have 
wished his religion had brought him to the provident humility of 
David, who sorried to have possessed himself but of the lapp of 



Saul's garment, though it were the witness of his fidelity. But 
fall it out this to all her Majesty's enemies, as to this precipitate 
and unfortunate Earl, by fate, by wicked counsel, or else by 
both ; and send such lion-like spirits no better courage to devour 
innocent lambs. But I will leave him to his confused end, not 
wondering that he accused you, when his own carriage hath 
accused himself most lamentably to the memory of all ages. 
And for my own part, being the meanest member of all, I cannot 
but join with you to pity some of those you have vouchsafed to 
name, since, if they had not been putrified in the place they held 
so near the head, they were otherwise in their persons and gifts 
of nature qualified for the service of the Prince and State. But 
such is the ruin of great oaks, as strait smaller trees that grow 
by are commonly overthrown by them. But this is discourse 
beyond my element. I beseech you pardon me, that I take this 
boldness to delineate some part of my mind concerning these 
matters to your so favourable view ; protesting that I write 
nothing to observe time, but to preserve truth. And believe me, 
Sir, if I were not as much yours before, as possibly the faith of 
an honest man could bind me, I would now make new pro- 
testations, and deliver you new bonds, finding myself so newly 
and highly obliged by this last memory of yours towards me. 
I can say no more. I will carry a true heart to effect as much 
as I have professed ; and pray God, the giver of all blessings, to 
multiply them (both heavenly and earthly) on you ; and number 
me, I beseech you, amongst those you make sure reckoning to 
command as yours most faithfully to do you service, 

" P. WiLLOUGHBY \" 

1 Lord Willoughby to Sir R. Cecil, Berwick, March 12, 1601. State 
Paper Office, Borders, vol. 71. 



408 Elizabeth's letter. 

This letter, however, is a digression from the usual tenour of 
the Border correspondence, and we now return to the affairs 
which chiefly concerned the governorship of Berwick. Queen 
Elizabeth did not disregard the clamours and complaints which 
perpetually reached her ears from this frontier town, but appears 
to have had discrimination enough to uphold Willoughby in the 
determined efforts he made to support his internal government, 
and the authority he derived from her. With her characteristic 
caution, however, she retains a certain check on liCr faithful sub- 
ject in the matter of the Council, even while openly manifesting 
her strong displeasure against his chief opponent, Musgrave. 
She begins thus : 

" Although we have forborne to write unto you since your 
going down, yet have we from time to time directed both our 
Council in general, and our Secretary in particular, to acquaint 
you with our pleasure, as well as to take notice of some private 
good services, done by you and the Treasurer in apprehending 
of such as you had so great cause to suspect, wherein we do 
commend your care and providence. We had likewise thought 
to have written to you about those differences risen in the town 
of Berwick, whereof you are Governor ; but forasmuch as we 
perceive some things grow by misunderstanding between you 
and some of that Council established, and all the controversies 
for the most part are for some petty rights, and incidents to 
officers or councillors in their places. We will leave those things 
to be answered by our Council, and here will, by our own letter, 
only touch those points which are of more importance. 

" First, we know that you can well consider that in all govern- 
ments nothing giveth greater encouragement for practice, nor 
more weakeneth for defence, than when there is either dissension 



SIR JOHN CAREY. 409 



in deed or opinion, of which there is so great notice taken there 
of late, as we rather wonder that no pernicious effects have 
ensued, than promise ourselves that it shall not break into peril 
hereafter, except it be timely prevented. Wherein, because we 
will deal as clearly with you as we have done with the Marshal ^, 
(between whom and you we have heard there hath been some 
misunderstanding,) and because we assure ourselves that we 
shall find so great an affection to our service in you, (of whose 
discretion in all your employments the world hath taken notice,) 
as you will not for any private suffer impediment to our 
service ; we have both straitly imposed upon the Marshal a 
charge to respect you as the Governor in all things that appertain 
unto you, and do mean, after some months' respite, (for which he 
hath earnestly sued,) to send him down unto you, so well in- 
formed of our resolution to have all good agreement between 
you, as we do know it shall well appear unto you that he will 
give you no j ust cause of unkindness, or sever himself from you 
in our services ; in whom we find a very good desire not only 
for our service, but for your own particular, to live in all things 
compatibly with you as any gentleman can do with a governor ; 
you respecting him as he deserveth, of which we make no doubt, 
though peradventure some bad instruments shall never want to 
do ill offices between you. It is true that we do think it very fit 
to admonish you to give strait order that no excess of resort of 
Scots be suffered in that garrison, but that (excepting the com- 
merce upon market-days, and such like, for the necessary sup- 
port of the place) it be used as frontier towns ought to be ; in 
which your experience teacheth you best, that all wise com- 



^ Sir John Carey. 

3 G 



manders hold those places only well governed where most jea- 
lousy is used, which is quite contrary there, if it be as is reported 
by the Scots themselves, who do not stick to say that they may 
freely come into Berwick, by one device or other, as into Edin- 
burgh. Next, we do require you to see that your government 
there be not slandered by the error of those who for private 
gain do make that place a sanctuary for bankrupts and outlaws, 
rather than a town of war ; nor that any person married with the 
Scots be suffered to have place there. Further, concerning the 
matter of Musgrave and Selby, we think fit to let you under- 
stand that as we have and will plainly make our mislihe appear 
to Musgrave for his factious and loud petition here exhibited 
against you, so for things that are in question between you and 
our Council there established, we cannot allow that any council 
of war shall be made judges, either of their authority or of their 
offences ; although we are not unwilling, in case of danger or 
other differences in inferior things, that you do call unto you, 
according to the article of our establishment, such principal per- 
sons of discretion to consult withal, as the time shall need. 

" But we have now gone further in these particulars than we 
meant to have troubled ourselves ; not doubting but that you 
see how much they daily abound in practice, will rather dispense 
with the errors of private men, (who may forget themselves out 
of some humour of profit or petty credit in their office,) than by 
making the dissensions so notorious, to make that place a subject 
of scorn, which, heing ruled hy a person of your reputation abroad 
and at home, ought still to serve for an example and bridle to 
those that would go about to malign it or our services. 

" Lastly, we pray you to believe that we are very sorry to 
understand of your indisposition of body, and the rather because 




we know how apt you are to hurt yourself by overmuch care and 
labor in our services ; wherein we would have you spare yourself 
as much as you may, for we would be loth your health should be 
more overthrown by those occasions, considering how long it is 
before men of service be bred in this age. And now, by the 
way, we will only touch this much of that, whereof we are sure 
an angel of heaven could hardly have made you a believer, that 
it appeareth now by one's example more bound than all or any 
other, how little faith there was in Israel \" 

On the 28th of March, Willoughby tenders a new species of 
service to the Queen, in the shape of a vessel to aid in defending 
her northern coasts, — probably the very ship to which Musgrave 
alluded in his complaint, and which he accused the Governor of 
fitting-out with ordnance at his own discretion, and contrary to 
order. He thus introduces the subject to Cecil : 

" May it please you, Sir, — These northern parts along the sea- 
coasts within her Majesty's dominions have been so haunted by 
the Dunkirkers of late years, as many of her Majesty's subjects 
have sustained great loss in their tradings, and divers are utterly 
undone by such their piracies. Neither is there other likelihood 
but that the like spoilings will be still continued, except some 
speedy course for remedy be had ; seeing their ships have lately 
showed themselves here within view, especially one of fourscore 
tons, carrying eight cast pieces on a side, built galleywise, with 
thirty-two oars, having aboard one hundred and forty mus- 
quetiers, besides galley slaves, commanded by a Castilian. She 

1 This is an evident allusion to the conspiracy of Essex, which painfully 
preyed on the Queen's mind. The letter, which is taken from a minute 
in the State Paper Office, (Borders, vol. 71?) is dated Whitehall, March 21, 
1600-1. 

3g2 



412 OFFER OF THE SHIP. 



rides now at the Bay of the May ^ in the Firth, and lay further 
up the river, whilst they bought wine and other victuals of the 
merchants of Edinburgh. The respect of my country, and the 
pity of those so hurt by such, persuaded me to build a ship, and 
moves me now to offer to serve her Majesty at as reasonable a 
rate as any ship of one hundred and forty tons, with sixteen 
pieces of artillery and one hundred men, can be maintained with. 
This I did the rather think fit to advertise, because my Lord 
President of York did formerly motion the same at my being at 
London. I will do my best to take some of them, even in the 
King's waters, if I may be warranted not to be chidden above. 
If this my offer of service seem good to yourself and the rest of 
her Majesty's Council, my ship shall presently be fitted ac- 
cordingly ; if not, I am purposed to dispose otherwise of her, 
being not able to maintain her. Touching the wardenry, it 
remaineth in most quiet estate ; my deputy hath held two days 
of truce with the opposite of Tividale," &c. &c.^ 

This offer of service is succeeded on the following day by a 
long letter to the Queen, in answer to hers of the 21st; but long 
as it is, it contains so many valuable explanations and replies to 
the various subjects which hers enlarged upon, and (with the 
exception of some over- wrought expressions of devotion to her- 
self) is so beautifully written, that it will not well bear abridg- 
ment : 

" Lord Willoughby to Queen Elizabeth. 

" Most sacred Sovereign, — I would to God, He had made me 
so fortunate and happy, as to so gracious a Prince (who accept- 

' The Isle of May, off the coast of Fife. 

2 Lord Willoughby to Sir Robert Cecil, Berwick, March 28, 1601. State 



Paper Office, Borders, vol. 71. 



APPEAL TO THE QUEEN. 



413 



eth my small duties so favourably) I had been able to have 
multiplied and increased my services as the hairs of my head, 
according to the desires of my heart ; which being all too weak 
and unworthy to make protestation of so high a nature, I most 
humbly prostrate myself to beseech the grace of your belief, 
which only makes me happy in my life, so rare and precious a 
jewel is this to me, as I would undergo all present tortures and 
punishments, nay, whatsoever earth or hell could plague me with, 
rather than suffer my devoirs (in that behalf) to be spotted or 
bleached unto your Majesty. Then, most gracious sovereign, 
spare me only but this justice, (which you have never failed to 
any,) that mere calumny and false accusation draw me not like 
innocent Apelles, with juggling tricks and weaved nets, before so 
divine a Ptolemy as yourself. Reputation is the dearest thing 
that man lives withal ; but deriving itself from so high a judg- 
ment as your Majesty's is, it is. much more estimable than life, 
or whatsoever most precious. It seems suggested to your Ma- 
jesty, that (of misunderstanding) hath grown differences between 
Mr. Marshal and me ; and, besides those, dissensions between 
me and others (truly censured by your Majesty to be pernicious 
and dangerous to places of such government as this is, scorn to 
the adversary, and in itself unworthy the conversation of hu- 
manity). If I have any part of this kind of carriage, I will then 
take upon me the whole blame and imputation ; and though in 
itself it be not capital, I will be an humble suitor to your Ma- 
jesty to stop that breath that hath lived so long in so many of 
your services untainted, if now it be touched with such defects. 
My former behaviour may clear me, until the latter be proved 
against me ; and let me lose your favour (which is a heaven to 
me, nay, heaven itself) if I be guilty in this. For Mr. Marshal, 



414 



CONCERNING THE MARSHAL 



he complained of me for keeping a martial court in his absence, 
which I was forced, bound, and ought to do, for your service. In 
report of these things which have passed before your Majesty 
and the Lords of your honourable Council, I have written, 
spoken, nor said any thing, only being commanded by their 
Lordships to set down certain points to answer their demands, I 
did, as barely as might be, declare the same ; the chief point 
whereof was no more, than that my accusers had enforced the 
denying of my authority as your Majesty's Governor. If I have 
not else observed and wooed him, controlled him in nothing, but 
given him head in his own desires, in his private company, and 
public commands, I will then forfeit my credit. If (since his 
going to London) I have not satisfied all that he desired at my 
hands, I am not worthy belief. I know not, then, whence it 
should be collected that I have differed with Mr. Marshal, unless 
he will have it so, and that I cannot remedy ; for I am master but 
of my own self; and for myself I will undergo even his meanest 
commandments to obey your sacred Majesty, having never had 
in my thought but to purchase him and hold him, (if I could,) 
as I can evidently prove ; which course I shall not fail still to 
continue." 

Having thus declared his good will towards the person whom 
the Queen was desirous should assist him in duties now become 
too arduous for his declining health, and professed his determina- 
tion to obey her will in this instance, Willoughby next turns to 
his factious opposer, Musgrave, and writes thus : 

" Concerning the Master of the Ordnance, if I yielded not to 
all his desires, (if he would receive them by right, not compul- 
sion,) if I solicited not him and the Gentleman-Porter (by the 
Mayor and preachers of the town) to quietness and concord, by any 



AND THE MASTER OF THE ORDNANCE. 415 

even condition or equal construction, let me be disgraded of the 
place I hold, and perpetually baffled while I live. If there were 
no way left me but the testimony of trial of these proceedings 
which I sought lawfully by the verdict of worthy gentlemen that 
have passed further in your Majesty's services beyond seas, than 
ever he hath done in England, (who, contrary to a statute made 
in your most royal father's time, pecuniarily obtained his office, 
and not by desert,) some born worthily, and others well qua- 
lified ; this done according to the establishment, and not so few 
as five hundred written examples and precedents, whereof some 
(of officers of higher place than his) called in question not for 
trial only and inquiry as this, but further for sentencing of life in 
lighter matters, from which I did utterly abstain. I know not 
how I could avoid malicious calumny by a more easy and indif- 
ferent way, nor how it was possible for me to entertain the love 
of him that was purposed to break forth and break from me 
in such indign respect to your Majesty's Governor (as he did at 
his last going away without leave). Could I have held him in 
any reasonable terms, let God forsake me if I w^ould not most 
willingly have entertained him. But his malicious and false pur- 
suit since, showed his heart grounded in mischief against me. In 
amity a man cannot play two parts : I did my best, and it is seen 
(in the late accident of this unfortunate man) that neither your 
Majesty's goodness, nor the worthiness of your ministers about 
you, could contain him from malicious designs and scandals of 
them \ I humbly beseech your Majesty, if ever my services have 
been agreeable to you, or if my prayers and devotions may be 



^ Again an allusion to Lord Essex, whose conduct, he means, was a proof 
that kind treatment did not ahvays prevent rebellion. 



416 BERWICK AND THE SCOTS. 

aught in your sight, that it would please you to grant me (as the 
chiefest boon and guerdon I will beg of you during my life) that 
of this most calumnious accusation (by Mr. Musgrave) I may 
come to public trial, according to the order of your Majesty's 
most excellent laws. Most excellent Queen, let me either not 
live, or disgrade me of my offices, (for in truth I am not fit to do 
either,) if I am such as I am by him reported ; or let me live 
repaired of my honour, as one Lord D acres was (calumniated by 
a Musgrave) in the like nature. I cannot doubt, and therefore I 
am comforted, that your Majesty will grant me this general rule 
of your royal pleasure in your law, ut nulli juris heneficium dene- 
getur, ut quisque jus suum lihere prosequatur ; ut nulli calumniam 
fieri patiatur. I beseech your most sacred Majesty to pardon 
me, that I enlarge this letter so much further, as to clear that 
most unjust and untrue report made to your Majesty, of the 
Scots' repair so familiarly to this place as to Edinburgh. I have 
the testimony of all your Council here, and the record of this 
town, that I have not only heretofore banished the Scots this 
wardenry and town, but within these few weeks have thrust them 
out of your garrison by the pole. There are, that are not 
ashamed (the avower of truth being three hundred miles from 
them) to abuse the royal hearing of your Majesty with what 
their own consciences know not to be so, neither will ever come 
to prove. I have hitherto rather chosen to clear my own faults, 
(whereby I might be fitter for your Majesty's service,) than 
speak of others. But to amend that point of abuse, in receiving 
of bankrupts (commanded by your Majesty) and misordering 
your Majesty's charge here, it is a thing wherein they have 
gotten such head of me, by the liberty of this carriage, being no 
mean persons that do it, as I had need become an accuser to 



WILLOUGHBY S DESPATCH. 



417 



your Majesty, and a petitioner for assistance ; which (if I had 
passed my own apology) I shall always be ready at your Ma- 
jesty's pleasure to accomplish ; and in the mean season the 
Council established here can bear me witness, how at all musters 
and convenient times I have urged the same. I am infinite 
sorry to be thus tedious unto your Majesty, but I most humbly 
beseech you to pardon me. My heart nipped, cannot but choose 
but deliver the affection and innocency thereof; no otherwise 
than the eye pricked, sheddeth tears. 

" I praise Almighty God for your Majesty's deliverance. An- 
gels fell through pride, when poor humble Moses stood faithful 
in the house of the Lord. Man being in honour, hath no under- 
standing, but is compared to the beast that perisheth. Let them 
perish and become as the dust of the earth, that hold not their 
duties and loyalties. The Queen of Sion and the sweet land of 
promise is happily rid of such. The eternal God of heaven long 
preserve your Majesty, the rare ornament of the earth, and let 
my soul receive joys, as I shall faithfully pray for the same, and 
only desire to live and die 

" Your most sacred excellent Majesty's 

humble vassal and servant, 

"P. Willoughby'." 

The next despatch is very characteristic of Willoughby. Al- 
though gratified by the Queen's manifestation of displeasure 
against his accuser (Musgrave), and thankful that she thus sup- 
ported him against the cabals of his foes, he still regrets that the 



1 Lord Willoughby to the Queen, Berwick, the 29th of March, 1601. 

State Paper Office, Borders, vol. 71- 

3 H 






matter was not brought to a public trial, that so all the world 
might clearly perceive his innocence. Addressing Sir Robert 
Cecil, he says : 

"Of all tidings, there is none more comfortable to me than 
that of her Majesty's health, who hath been ever the spring, the 
summer, and is now the harvest of that small content I have of 
my life in this world, being so much dearer to me, as it prosper- 
eth with her highness' gracious opinion ; and as the virtue of the 
sunbeams is redoubled in cold countries to ripen fruits by re- 
flection, so must I acknowledge these rayons cast upon me by 
the reverberation of the great favour and kindness I have ever 
found at your hands. I humbly thank you likewise for your 
Scottish avisoes. The Earl of Mar ^ hath an honourable pre- 
sence that promiseth well : I think such a one will not mar a 
good cause with bad handling." 

This pun on the name of the Scotch ambassador in England is 
a novel occurrence in the writings of Willoughby, although quite 
in the spirit of the writers of the day ; the expressions that pre- 
cede it, partake still more of the reigning fashion, of figurative 
language, and highly- wrought compliment. " I think," he con- 
tinues, " the King twice happy in this, that he treateth with a 
lady of so rare bounty and sweetness as her Majesty, that can 
better discern to grant, than they mannerly to ask. I think it 
not likewise the least part of his fortune, to have near hand her 
Majesty such a minister, as though his Scottish kail be but 
homely cooked, (as they term it,) can in the service thereof so 
garnish it, as it may please both sight and sense, and procure an 

^ Ambassador at that time from King James to the court of Elizabeth. 



SIR ROBERT CECIL. 419 



appetite to a queasy stomach." Turning from Scotland, he ad- 
verts to the encouraging aspect of affairs in Ireland, since the 
Queen (after Essex's return) had appointed Lord Mountjoy her 
deputy there, with valuable co-adjutors as presidents of the 
provinces of Ulster and Munster. " The Lord be thanked," he 
writes, " for the good news of Ireland. My Lord Mountjoy hath 
been a very honourable accomplisher of that provident plot laid 
before his going, when Sir Henry Doewray was sent for Ulster, 
and Sir George Carew for Munster, and the colonies there 
erected ; which doubtless was not the least primary cause of the 
subsequent happy effects there. Neither is it to be doubted, but 
that the conclusions will be like the beginnings, which I shall 
pray for. For Mr. Musgrave's commitment I hold myself in- 
finitely bound to her Majesty and their Lordships, that have 
such care to discourage calumny. But if I may with pardon 
say it, I would have been glad that those matters had first come 
to public trial, by which I might more generally have cleared my 
own carriage in this behalf, as I wrote unto you ^ in my last 
packet of the 29th of March, which, by this of yours of the 2nd 
of April, I suppose was not come to your hands. Yet rest I in 
all duty satisfied for his complaint to their Lordships, with her 
Majesty's pleasure, and am humbly thankful for the same. 
And for you, Sir, give me leave to say, nescio quid retrihuam 
Domino "^.^^ 

On the 19th of April, after premising that it was unnecessary 
to trouble the Secretary with any " Scotch occurrents," consider- 

^ Sir Robert Cecil. 

2 Lord Willoughby to Sir R. Cecil, received the 14th of AprO, 1601. 

State Paper Office, Borders, vol. 71. 

3 H 2 



ing that Mr. Nicholson had lately despatched a packet to him, 
the Governor proceeds to mention an affair which he " could not 
omit to certify. Here on this coast the Dunkirk ers have com- 
mitted divers spoils ; amongst which they have taken a ship of 
Lynn, laden with the Queen's provision of wheat and beans, for 
this garrison, and carried her into the Frith in Scotland ; where- 
upon I manned forth my ship (at my own cost) with one hun- 
dred men, and followed her thither, to siu'prise her (if it may 
happily so succeed). But the charge is such that my whole 
estate will not maintain her one summer ; wherefore unless there 
be some reasonable course taken for the defraying so great 
expenses, I would desire to be excused of such expectation, al- 
though there be nothing within my compass I would not adven- 
ture for her Majesty and my country's service \' 



1 »j 



At this moment Willoughby appears to have been more than 
usually engaged in naval affairs ; for King James of Scotland 
pressed upon his consideration some matters relative to the Eng- 
lish shipping on the coast of Scotland. He does not appear to 
entertain a high opinion of his Majesty's knowledge of the sub- 
ject, but (as in duty bound) communicated to the ministers of his 
own sovereign, the views he held, and the plans he had devised, 
adding his own comments upon them. At the time, this corre- 
spondence between him and James was by the latter entrusted 
to him as a secret, only to be divulged to the Queen and her 
government, but which he earnestly prayed might be made 
known to her. The letter is a curious specimen of royal pen- 
manship : 

' Lord Willoughby to Sir Robert jCecil, April 19, 1601. State Paper 
Ofiice, Borders, vol. 71- 



KING JAMES S LETTER. 421 



" King James the Sixth to Lord Willoughby. 

" Right trusty and weil-beloved, We greet you hertlie well. 
Notwithstanding of sindrie our actis and proclamations maid 
anent the stay of the resort of the Dunkerkeris within our 
watteris and coistis, and of our subjectis to resselt thame, or 
thair pryses, being still dalie impesched with complaintis thairof, 
proceeding (as appeiris) of the privie comploytis and dealing be- 
twixt yame, and sum of our subjectis of our coist syde, import- 
ing thairby gayne ; sen for the good affection we carye toward 
our dearest sister the Quene, your soverane, and that cuntrie, 
our care and diligence has bene verray great in restraynt of the 
hant of those lymmeris within our watteris and coistis, we wische 
the same to be effectuall, and yet it were not thocht that our 
actis and proclamations wer used as a publict and outward 
schaw, or that we had any uther privie dealing in that mater, hot 
in sinceritie and honnest manner. In our opinioun the special 
cause of the resort sa commounlie of the Dunkirkeris with their 
pryses within our watteris, is for laik of keiping of the mouth 
thairof, and your own straictis, quhilk we will willinglie accord 
salbe helpit be ye setting out of ane or twa of your awin schippis, 
to await within your awin straictis, and the mouth of our wattaris, 
for their trapping and withstanding. 

" Condi tionallie always that thairby nane of our gude subjectis 
nayer uther foreynaris ressave wrang, truble, or dommage, in 
thair passing or repassing in thair honest and laiefull tread. We 
have thought gude heirby secreitlie to utter to your our honnest 
and sincere meaning in this errand, and to requeist yow to con- 
ceil the same from all utheris, except onlie our dearest sister, 
quhom ye may acquent yerwith. And saie remitting our mynd 



heiranent to be impairted to you mair amplie be George Nichol- 

soun, we commit you in God's protection. From Dalkeith, the 

xxiiii of Aprile, 1601. 

" Your loving freind, 

(Signed) " James R.^ 

*' To our right trusty and weil-belovit the Lord Willichbye, Lord 
Governour of Berwick, and Warden over the East Marche 
of England." 

The Governor forwards the letter to Sir R. Cecil, accompanied 
by these remarks : 

" I had rather the success of my desires had been such as 
they might have been advertised by others than myself to the 
agreeation of them I owe my service unto. Now, Sir, I beseech 
you to peruse George Nicholson's letter ^ to me, with his direc- 
tions from the King, and also the King's letter to myself. Where- 
in, howsoever he pretendeth justice, yet he openeth no ready 
passage thereto. The difRculties that he demands of being ad- 
vertised, the time slacked thereby, his invention that our ships 
should lie waiting in the mouth of his waters till he drive them 
forth, together with the slow satisfaction that hath been given 
hitherto of her Majesty's spoiled subjects, shows in the first part 
of these proceedings a stronger restraint than an enlarged re- 
medy, and so consequently that the King speaketh more like a 
king of his will, than an admiral that knows the seas. For it is 
impossible for ships to ride all weathers in the mouth of such open 
roads as the Firth, much less to attend till those people, which 



1 King James VI. to Lord Willoughby, Dalkeith, April 24, 1601. 
Paper Office, Borders, vol. 72. 

2 Dated Edinburgh, April 26, 1601. 



State 



HIS CARES AND SUFFERINGS. 423 



hitherto have neglected his commandments, should drive out the 
said offenders to us, from whom they protect them. But being 
conjured to make this known to her Majesty, his dearest sister, 
as a secret, I have presumed, together with his own letters, to 
have added thus much of my conceit and knowledge in those 
things which I thought might either harm or advantage the pre- 
sent effecting of that which he pretendeth to affect. Desiring 
you that your favour and good opinion may shadow my failings, 
and continue him in the same, who will ever rest, 

" Yours most faithfully, 

"P. Willoughby\" 

Meanwhile the harassing cares and bodily ailments of Lord 
Willoughby made him not only willing, as before, but still more 
eagerly desirous to be relieved of so heavy a charge as the re- 
sponsible situation he held. He addresses the Secretary thus, in 
the month of May : 

" As I was the last year^ much bound unto you for procuring 
my leave, by which I am tied to leave here either the Marshal, 
or such other officer as I will be respondent for ; there being 
none here now but the Gentleman-Porter, I am still thereby con- 
fined to this place, now well near a year, having suffered much 
in my health, but much more through the strange dealing of 
some who have not only sought to overthrow my reputation, but 
wilfully hazarded thereby the good estate and safety of this 
place. Now, Sir, I must continue my suit, that in my best for- 
tune I may be most beholding unto you, that either I may be 

^ Lord Willoughby to Sir R. Cecil, Ber\vick, April 28. State Paper 
Office, Borders, vol. 71- 

^ In August, 1600 ; vide letter of that date. 



424 LETTER TO SIR R. CECIL. 



excused to leave this place to such as are here residing, or else 
the Marshal sent down to exercise his own office, that I may be 
relieved, and have liberty to give my attendance above at the 
court, to relate such things as are fit for her Majesty's service, 
and to justify myself; wherein if I fail, I will require no favour. 
And in the mean season I humbly desire that nothing may be 
sentenced afore I be heard, neither of my adversaries' sides that 
have complained, nor of mine, though they have not stuck of late, 
as I am able to prove, to vaunt themselves and encourage others, 
by letters sent hither against me. 

" Thus trusting of your accustomed goodness and kindness 
whilst this fair season serves, I rest and acknowledge myself 
" Yours most bound to my uttermost power, 

"P. WiLLOUGHBY. 

*' Postscript. 
" Sir, — Because Sir John Carey hath no great desire to hasten 
down hither, if it seem good to her Majesty, I would gladly leave 
Sir Robert Carey my deputy here, considering how sound a 
gentleman he is in respect both of his blood, and fortified with 
good friends and means. I have already partly won him to do 
me that honour, if it stand with others' agreeation \" 

On the 4th of June, Lord Willoughby, again addressing Sir R. 
Cecil, makes a severe criticism on the Scottish nation, observing 
" that Scotland is very constant to itself, that never changeth 
changing. I have no news," he adds, " worthy of you from 
thence, and I know you will be at large and plentifully adver- 
tised thereof by more convenient means. I only here expect 

^ Lord Willoughby to Sir Robert Cecil, Berwick, 1601. State Paper 
Office, Borders, vol. 71. 



THE KING OF SCOTS. 425 



two things : confirmation of my leave from you, and satisfaction 
of my bills from Roxburgh, which I have earnestly soHcited ; 
and then nothing could please me better than come to the test, 
though I know the purest gold is not without dross, which may 
rather be in the vein or mineral, than in the metal itself. The 
Searcher of hearts, and true Refiner, by time, and the zeal of 
fire, will make things evident. To his almighty power I com- 
mend the happiness of so worthy a subject, and the prosperity of 
such an incomparable royal estate," &c. &c. 

He adds : "I understand, for certain, that a packet of mine 
directed to you, for her Majesty's service, was intercepted, and 
brought to the King of Scots, by some of my adversaries here ; 
for which the King hath conceived very bitterly of me. But 
being for her Majesty's service, and my duty, I regard no king 
but the King of heaven only, though I think the wrong great \" 

On the 11th he obtained further information on this perplex- 
ing subject. He informs Sir R. Cecil, that he understands *'by 
the same post that carried those papers, and lost them on his 
return into Scotland, that they were but a false packet. . . I am 
glad," he continues, " the jest lighted but on myself^ and so true 
packets — miscarry not, (as they have done,) to the prejudice of 
her Majesty's service. I shall be contented with any that con- 
cerns mine own fortune ; which I commend to God in heaven, 
and to you, mine honourable friend in earth for the little time I 
have here," &c. &c.^ 

In the mean while the Governor became perplexed how to act, 

* Lord Willoughby to Sir Robert Cecil, June 4, 1601. State Paper Office, 
Borders, vol. ^2. 

2 Lord WUlougliby to Sir Robert Cecil, Berwick, June 11, 1601. State 
Paper Office, Borders, vol. 72. 

3 T 



426 



OFFICES AT BERWICK. 



and what powers to grant to a certain military gentleman, who 
at this juncture arrived at Berwick, having purchased from this 
very Sir John Carey the command of his company, and his 
office of chamberlain, and apparently expecting also to be en- 
rolled amongst the councillors of the place. This was a dignity 
which Lord Willoughby did not conceive himself entitled to 
bestow, as it was vested entirely in the sovereign, — a proof that 
he was not ambitious to arrogate to himself any doubtful powers. 
His communication to the Secretary is thus worded : 

" There is one Captain Skyner come hither, recommended 
from Sir John Stanhope and Sir John Carey, who hath resigned 
unto him for a certain sum of money, both his company of one 
hundred foot, as also his office of chamberlain, and, as it is given 
out, allowed of from above. I have felt enough the debates of 
the establishment, which I am more ready to fulfil than dispute 
of ; and therefore finding thereby no power in me to authorize a 
councillor, but that that estate is reserved in her Majesty, I refer 
myself humbly to be directed therein by you. For my own 
part, I allow of the gentleman, and of his placing, so far as I 
can, the rather for that I understand he hath dependency of you, 
to whom I owe all my best affections ; as also that I have heard 
him very well reported of, and that he hath paid dearly for the 
places he desires to be possessed of. If it be thought good he 
be made a councillor, there would be an oath made for swearing 
him, for there is no oath belonging to the place. I think it were 
very fit in these matters of councillors (since they are annexed 
to offices, as the Gentleman-Porter, the Master of the Ordnance, 
&c.) that they did understand what their powers were, whether 
to assist the Governor or command him, as they pretend, arguing 
the Council of York have brought a Lord President to the 



willoughby's alarming illness. 427 

board's end, to control him ; so their inference is, the Council of 
Berwick may do the like. For my own part, 1 have learned to 
obey^ before I did desire to command ; and what rank soever I 
am put in, I will with all humility bestow myself in it. But 
I speak this for present quiet, that every man may do his duty, 
and for future services of her Majesty's to such as she shall give 
charge thereof, and not for other government, which my short life 
hath no ambition to reach unto. I would be very glad you would 
vouchsafe me an answer, for the acceptance of Sir Robert Carey 
as my deputy, to which purpose I sent up my footman ; for if it 
be deferred long, the season of the year will not permit me to 
travel. I am sorry to be thus so unmannerly troublesome unto 
you ; but the desire I have to satisfy you in my affections to you 
and yours, and the free testimony to render you in all my truest 
endeavours, makes me thus homely and bold. And so desiring 
to be interpreted, I shall pray .you to assure yourself that I am 
one of that number that is more in truth than show, 

" Most faithfully at your command, 

"P. Willoughby'." 

When Lord Willoughby penned the above letter, his death- 
blow was already given : on the 14th of June (Saturday) he was 
on board his ship, lying in the haven, waiting or " attending 
wind," as it is expressed ; a violent cold thus caught brought on 
a fever ^, which proved fatal, and much sooner so than the by- 
standers at all expected. A constitution which was evidently 

* Lord Willoughby to Sir R. Cecil, Berwick, June 18, 1601. State Paper 
Office, Borders, vol. 72. 

- Mr. WUliam Selby to Sir R. Cecil, Berwick, June 25, 1601. State 
Paper Office, Borders, vol. 72. 

3 I 2 



428 willoughby's last 



not robust, and which his own letters prove he felt to be more 
than ever enfeebled during the last year, had no powers of bat- 
tling with the approach of disease ; though perhaps when he 
remarked on his " short life," he himself had no idea that its 
duration could be no longer computed even by weeks, but that 
(as in one sense it is so to all, so to him literally) his days were 
numbered. 

There is but one more letter of his in his public capacity 
known to exist. It bears date the 21st of June, and is addressed 
to Sir Robert Cecil, and for the last time urges his suit to be 
permitted to trust his charge to Sir Robert Carey, and to with- 
draw from a scene to which he no longer felt equal. As the 
expiring effort of his pen, it will bear no curtailing, and was 
written on the last earthly Sabbath he ever saw : 

Lord Willoughby to Sir Robert Cecil. 

" Most honourable Sir, — It was never in my imagination to 
expostulate, either by myself or friends, any answer to my let- 
ters ; only I requested some, out of my respective care, to assure 
you of my faith and constancy, which might be interested in so 
worthy an opinion as yours, by my malicious accusers. The 
only thing I require was to know your acceptance of Sir Robert 
Carey for my deputy, who, as I formerly wrote, was very willing 
to take it upon him." He then alludes to some matters be- 
tween him and the other brother (Sir John Carey) thus : " For 
Sir John Carey, it is not a hundred pounds I care for. He un- 
dertook this last winter another thing, to prove it legitimately ; 
which if he had done, he had saved his oath, and I would have 
commended him. The pecuniary sale of places of authority is 
neither honourable nor safe. If it be her Majesty's pleasure to 



give it, she may dispose of that, as of my patent also. For Sir 
John Carey's pretence, his estate was known ; his marshal's en- 
tertainment with other advantages, with his brother's parting and 
his of Norham, hath cut off £700 by year of the Governor's 
entertainment of this place ; though things were never so dear as 
now, trebling the wonted rates. For Sir John Carey, if my Lord 
his brother die not speedily, he will be ready to make a new 
marshal, which will be round sums for him to baron ^ it with, one 
on the neck of another, first £1500 of Harding's money, then 
£1100 of Mr. Skyner; and a marshal cannot come better cheap 
than a poor chamberlain. But for my own particular, would all 
the profits, royalties, forfeitures, fees of courts, or whatsoever I 
have of her Majesty here, besides that little naked pay by her 
Majesty left me, I will quit it him all for his love and kindness ; 
and what such windfalls will come to, the last two winters will 
witness, which were other sums than that he demands of £100 by 
year. And were it to that kind gentleman. Sir Robert Carey, I 
would willingly give it to purchase him, with this reservation, 
that whilst it pleaseth her Majesty to continue me Governor of 
this place, I may not have any man command the manright of 
placing and displacing, whereby T may be kept out of my govern- 
ment by faction and division ; whereof this last winter there 
was like to have been a precedent. And the rather for that the 
establishment, my patent, and their own oaths, ties them to it, 
and that I be not thrust out of my government by such as have 
gone about these nine or ten years to fortify themselves here. 
You shall find me kind and respective to him in any thing. I 

1 This is in anticipation of his succeeding to the barony of Hunsdon, which 
he did in 1603, on the death of his brother George (the second baron) 
without male issue. 






430 willoughby's dangerous condition. 

will not touch the freehold of his profit, so he will not interest the 
reputation of my honour in this place. Old soldiers look rather 
to end their days with some advancement, than to be thrust out 
of reckoning with the world. T will say no more, but like an 
old rustical fellow conclude. Pride, and ignorance of our pro- 
fession, will be the quicksilver to eat out ourselves, and let other 
drones suck the honey ; as some modern enemies of our divines 
do accuse them to have done, and they step to be parish priests 
afore they be clerks. 

" Noble Sir, think I speak not this out of spleen, for I protest 
I do not. I love Mr. Marshal well, but I would have him keep 
his rank, and give me leave to go to my grave in quiet ; and then 
let him tread on me, and spare not. Thus sorry to have held 
you with so unpleasant and tedious a discourse, I take my leave, 
and rest 

'^ Yours most faithfully to command, 

" P. Wylughby ^" 

The signature in the original letter, which in this instance has 
been spelt according to Willoughby's own orthography, although 
written after the commencement of his last illness, and within a 
few days of his dissolution, is as firm as usual, evincing no sym- 
ptoms of increased debility. 

On the morning of the 25th of June, the Lord Governor's 
condition became alarming ; and it was then that Sir William 
Selby thought it necessary to make it known to the chief Secre- 
tary, that no confusion might (if it could be averted) take place 
in the event of his becoming worse. He remarks that the illness 

1 Lord Willoughby to Sir R. Cecil, Berwick, June 21, 1601. State Paper 
Office, Borders, vol. 72. 



HIS DEATH. 431 



consequent on his exposure to cold on board his ship, as has 
been already mentioned, had " brought him to a fever that had 
continued ever since ; and," he proceeds, " weakened his body 
through want of sleep and food, in such sort as his Lordship's 
life seemeth to be in great peril, even in the judgment of his 
physicians ; whereof I thought it my duty to give timous adver- 
tisement, that such order may be appointed for the government 
of this town, as to her Majesty shall seem meet, and the rather 
for that of all the councillors, I alone am here, unfit to bear the 
burden of so great a charge \" 

In the space of a few short hours, the same writer forwarded 
another despatch, to announce that the worst apprehensions of 
the physicians were realized, that the powers of nature were 
exhausted, and that Lord Willoughby, closing his eyes to mortal 
scenes and earthly cares, had surrendered his spirit into the hands 
of his Creator. " At the hour,'' he says, " of the writing of the 
last of this date, the Lord Governor, albeit very sick, yet in the 
judgment of us that were about him, not likely to depart this 
life so shortly as it hath pleased God, he now at this instant hath 
done. I have thought it my duty by this second letter to adver- 
tise his death, which in regard of his Christian end was comfort- 
able to all beholders, and eternally happy for himself. In the 
mean time, till her Majesty send some chief personage hither for 
this government, there shall be no want of care and diligence in 
me, to the best of my understanding, to perform such services as 
shall be incident thereto ; having in the mean time, for that I am 
alone, great want of assistance for a place of that charge, and 
have for her Majesty's service advertised Sir William Bowes, 



* Sir William Selby to Sir R. Cecil, Berwick, June 25, 1601. State Paper 
Office, Borders, vol. 72. 



432 



WILLOUGHBY S DYING WORDS. 



who is yet at his house in the bishopric, as I am informed, of 
his Lordship's death, and have entreated him to make his pre- 
sent repair hither, to receive the government," &c. &c.^ 

A more minute, and consequently more interesting account of 
the last hours of Willoughby's life, is given in another letter, 
bearing the same date, and also addressed to the Secretary, but 
in the handwriting of his kinsman Guevara, who appears to 
have sincerely regretted him, and to have faithfully watched by 
the bed-side of his dying patron and friend : 

" It is," he writes, " no small grief to me, to be the first 
reporter of the saddest accident that could almost betide to me, 
and of so unpleasing news to you ; but all creatures must stoop 
to the heavenly decree, and a general duty doth command me, 
though my heart break with telling it. That honourable Lord, 
the Lord Willoughby that lately was, is now no more an earthly 
soul ; his spirit is gone from us, who, whilst he lived, was un- 
feigned where he loved, and most regardful of your honour. And 
when he saw he must go hence, his heart breathed out these pro- 
testations : ' I wish my soul might never enjoy the blessing of 
the heavenly light, if ever my heart were other to my sacred 
anointed Queen, than truly and sincerely faithful, or if ever 
I gave just cause, even in my thought, to offend her, whatsoever 
evil the wicked harpies of the world have shrieked out, to my 
prejudice. God forgive them, and let Mr. Secretary, that most 
honourable gentleman, believe me, for I speak the truth in 
Christ. My heart long time hath been with Him, as David's was 
with Jonathan ; and if time and occasion would have made me 
so happy as to witness it in my life, I should have enjoyed great 

1 Mr. WiUiam Selby to Sir R. Cecil, Berwick, June 25, 1601. State Paper 
Office, Borders, vol. 72. 



I 



MESSAGE TO CECIL. 433 



contentment therein. But now I can do nothing but speak. I 
commend to him my eldest son, and I beseech him satisfy my 
desiring soul in his honourable care of him.' 

" These words he willed me precisely to observe, and relate to 
your honour, with the first notice I should give of his death ; and 
then calling for his will, he commanded me to see your name 
written therein, as the only supervisor ^ of that his last testament. 
His eldest son is sole executor, and four appointed as factors for 
him during his minority : the Lord Zouch, the Lord Rich, Sir 
Drew Drury, and Sir John Payton. Thus hath sorrow made me 
write boldly to your honourable self; and if I may put your 
honour in mind of this wardenry, (whereof I was deputy to him 
whilst he lived,) I most humbly desire to know your honourable 
pleasure what shall be done during the vacation of a warden, see- 
ing the Scottish bills are now a swearing at Kelso. Our English 
are to be sworn here, by appointment between my dead Lord and 
the Lord of Roxburgh ; and the days of truce are agreed upon 
with both the East and Middle March of Scotland. I beseech 
your Lordship pardon me in this my rudeness, and impute it to 
the extremity of my affection, that have lost that earthly hope 
whereon I and my brethren chiefly depended. 

'' Your honour's to my uttermost in whatsoever 
you please command me, 

"John Guevara^." 

^ Supervisors of wills, to carry their provisions into effect, were com- 
monly appointed in the sixteenth and beginning of the seventeenth centuries, 
having a paramount authority over the executors, on whom devolved the 
legality of the execution of the will. 

2 Mr. John Guevara to Sir Robert Cecil, Berwick, June 25, 1601. State 
Paper Office, Borders, voL 72. 

3 K 



434 



EFFECTS OF WILLOUGHBY S DEATH. 



The effect of Willoughby's death was immediately felt; on 
the second day after that event took place, one of the Scotch 
pledges, named John Bourne, escaped in the confusion from 
Berwick, and fled into Scotland. Sir John Carey, whose pre- 
sence had been so desired by the late Lord Governor, arrived at 
Berwick on the 4th of July ; on the 11th he thus wrote to Cecil: 
" Since the death of my Lord Governor, the borders have of 
both sides taken the advantage of liberty, insomuch as the ill- 
disposed fill their hands without controlment, many complaints 
made, and disorders committed, without redress, for want of an 
officer ^" On his journey to Berwick he had been appointed 
Lord Warden, but he did not receive his patent until late on 
Saturday night, the 11th ^. 

The mortal remains of the gallant Lord Willoughby were not 
removed from Berwick till the 20th of July, nearly a month 
after his decease, as we learn by the following communication 
from Sir John Carey to Sir Robert Cecil : 

" Even as I received this packet, I was coming from the 
delivery of my Lord Governor's body into his ship, which was 



^ State Paper Office, Borders, vol. 72. 

' Sir John Carey was not named Governor of Berwick, but commanded 
the garrison as principal officer during Elizabeth's life. The other brother 
(Sir Robert) just before her decease visited the Enghsh coui-t, and made up 
his mind to be the bearer of the news of his accession to James, so soon as it 
should take place. Accordingly, no sooner had the Queen breathed her 
last, than he set out for Scotland ; and although much hurt by a fall on the 
way, and a kick from his horse, he reached Edinburgh before any other mes- 
senger ; on the strength of the tidings he brought, entered the Kuig's apart- 
ment before he had risen, and was the first to hail him King of England. — 
Ridpath's Border History, quoted from p. 687 to 701. 



HIS BURIAL. 435 



done with as much solemnity and honour as our small company 

and means could any way afford. 

*' Your hono\u-'s ever to command, 

"John Carey \ 
"Dated July 20, 1601." 

Lord Willoughby was only in his forty-sixth year when he 
thus died at Berwick, a. d. 1601 ^ He was buried at Spillsby, 
in the county of Lincoln, where a monument was erected to his 
memory. But before we take our final leave of one whose 
career we have thus traced from the cradle to the grave, a few 
characteristic speeches of his must be recorded by his biographer, 
and a short sketch of his actions and merits subjoined, in the 
words of an old-fashioned historian. 

On one occasion he captured a choice jennet, " managed" for 
the war, and designed for a present to the King of Spain. The 
Spanish General pressed hard for its restitution, and offered him 
either the sum of £1000, to be paid immediately, or £100 a year 
for life, if he would yield to his importunities ; to which overture 
Lord Willoughby replied, " That if it had been a commander, he 
would have freely sent it back ; but being a horse, he loved 
him as well as the King of Spain, and would keep him ^." 

Once when he was in bed with a violent fit of the gout, an 
insulting challenge was sent him ; he returned for answer, "That 
although he was lame of his hands and feet, yet he would meet 
his adversary with a piece of a rapier in his teeth*." 

The following summary of his birth, life, character, &c. is 

1 Sir John Carey to Sir R. Cecil, Berwick, July 20, 1601. State Paper 
Office, Borders, vol. 72. A postscript adds, that he had "sworo Master 
Harry Guevara in his brother's place of captainship." 

2 Inq. post mortem. 

Lloyd's Memoirs. * Ibid. 

3 K 2 



extracted from the History of Belgia, or of the Civil Wars in the 
Netherlands, written by Emanuel Meteranus, and translated by 
T. Churchyard, Esq.^ 

" This noble gentleman by birth, and virtuous Lord by his 
life, Lord Peregrine Bartue, (Lord of Willoughby, Bee, and 
Eresby,) the only son of the Right Worshipful, or rather Honour- 
able (for his birth, virtue, and learning) Master Richard Bertie, 
descended of the noble house aforesaid, who married the noble 
and virtuous Lady Katherine, Duchess of Suffolk, being born at 
Wesel, proved pregnant in wit, prompt in knowledge, and praised 
especially in martial actions, whereby he became the ornament of 
his noble progenie, and a most worthy instrument for the service 
of his King and country^." 

* " A true Discourse historical of the succeeding Governors in the Nether- 
lands, &c. in the year 1565." Translated by T. Churchyard, Esq. Printed 
1602. p. 103—5. 

2 " Insomuch as his first service wherein the Queen's Majesty employed 
him, was when in his adolescencie he was sent her Ambassador unto Frederick, 
the second of that name, King of Denmark, towards whom he so wisely be- 
haved himself, and from whom he so demeaned himself towards his Highness 
in his return and answer, that seldom a better or the like Ambassador hath 
been in the like case found in one of so young years, for her royal Majesty, 
either before or since his time. 

" Next after that his heroical spmt, yet further affecting mihtary affah's, 
as one more desu'ous to serve his Prince and country, it pleased her High- 
ness, with the advice of her most honourable Privy Council, upon the great 
opinion and liking they had conceived of his dexterity, when the Earl of 
Leicester was the first time returned to England, to send him over to the 
Netherlands, as Lieutenant- General of the English forces there, anno 1586, 
where his noble courage so conjoined with dexterity, and his forwardness 
with such fortune, that he himself was foremost in all attempts and enter- 
prises of his forces, fiercely like a hon he assailed the enemies, fovight with 
them, spoiled them, and foiled them wheresoever he came ; so verily and in 
such sort, as the Duke of Parma then himself confessed of this worthy Lord 



In the Belgic wars " no convoy could at any time escape his 
victorious hands, neither durst any enemie approach the town of 
Bergen-op-Zoom, where and while he was Governor. Such by 
the favour of God was his virtue, joyned with his fortune, in his 
said government, that he was highly honoured of his own garri- 
son, and also greatly feared of his enemies, when he oftentimes 
made challenge of the bravest of them ; as, namely, the Marquis 
of Guasto, (a nobleman of chief account with the Duke of Parma,) 
who yet for all that refused to encounter with him hand to hand. 
After the return of the Earl of Leicester, this worthy Lord Wil- 
loughby," (as commander,) " with great wisdom, circumspection, 
diligence, and fidelity, discharged his duty so honourably and 
uprightly, in all points, and at all times, that he withstood the 
enemies' attempt, gained the goodwill of the people of these pro- 

Willoughby and his service, (for four years' space in those countries,) never 
any Englishman enterprised more boldly to meet his enemies in the face, 
more bravely encountered them, nor more painfully pursued and sought them 
out, near and far off, to their disgrace, spoil, and foil, wheresoever he found 
them. 

"At Zutphen, when the Prince of Parma came thither to relieve that 
town, this worthy Lord Lieutenant Willoughby, (under the Earl of Leices- 
ter, who came not into the fight,) being in place more forward than the rest, 
marched, weU-moxm.ted, met the enemies courageously, brake his lance in 
the midst of them, made way with his sword every where, and so forcibly 
adventured his noble person through the thickest of them, that all his men 
nearest him much feared, when his basses were bereaved from his body, his 
plumes plucked away from his head, and his arms bebattered with blows, 
(except God would then mightily preserve and protect him above all expect- 
ation,) he should utterly have been foiled in the fight, and spoiled both of 
life and all things else about him, he was so desperately endangered every 
way. 

" In this hot broil he with his own hands caught hold of Seignior George 
Cressyonyer, Albanoys, one of Parma's chief commanders of his horse, and 
carried him away prisoner perforce." 



438 



WILLOUGHBY S LAST 



vinces, appeased their troubles, and ended all controversies in the 
towns of Meckdenblick, Naarden, &:c., to the general peace and 
common quiet of the same towns and countries." 

Perhaps no greater compliment could be paid to the capacity 
of Lord Willoughby as a general and soldier, than the declaration 
of that great commander. Sir Francis Vere, who acknowledged 
that to him he owed his military skill \ 

His last will and testament is dated from Berwick, August 7, 
1599, and begins thus : 

" In the name of the blessed divine trynitie in persons, and of 
omnipotent unitye in godhead ; who created, redeemed, and 
sanctified me, whom I stedfastly believe will glorifie this sinfull, 
corruptible, and fleshlie body, with eternal happiness, by a joyful 
resurrection at the generall judgment, when by his incompre- 
hensible justice and mercye having satisfied for my sinfull soul, 
and stored it uppe in his heavenly treasure, his almightie voyce 
shall call all fleshe to be joyned together with the soul to ever- 
lasting comfort or discomforte. In that holy name, I Peregrin 
Bertye, Knighte, Lord Willoughbie of Willoughbie, Becke, and 
Eresbie, in perfect health and remembrance, and considering the 
frayltie of man, and the uncertentye how short and evil his dayes 
be, and intending to establish and dispose theis worldly benefitts 
that God hath lent me, to the comfort and advantage of such 
children as God hath blessed me withal, hoping that they my 
said children will nourish and mayntaine all brotherly kindness, 
love, and affection betweene themselves, considering the misery 
division bringeth in all estates of this hatefuU world, still to the 



1 Johnstone, Rec. Brit. Hist. p. 149. Johnstone describes Lord Wil- 
loughby as, " Juvenis genere nobilis, manu promptus, ardorem animi vultu 
oculisque prseferens." p. 329. 



WILL AND TESTAMENT. 439 



worse declining. Now I, the said Lord Willoughbie, make and 
declare this my last will and testament as folio weth." 

He orders his body to be buried in the church of Spillsby, 
" observing Christian conveniency, and avoiding superfluous 
charge." He bequeaths to his son Peregrine Bertie, his manor 
of Wheatacre Borough, in the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk, 
with lands, &c. situate in Barbican, in London, to enjoy the same 
after the death of his sister Susan, Countess of Kent. 

He bequeaths to his son, Henry Bertie, the manor of Fulstowe 
Beck, &c. 

To Vere Bertie, his son, divers lands, &c. 

To Roger, his son, demesnes of Gosberton, &c. 

To his daughter, Catherine, (who was betrothed in marriage to 
Charles Sheffield, son and heir of Lord Sheffield,) a portion of 
£4000 ; but in case of her death before such marriage took 
place, the sum to be divided between his four younger sons. 

He bequeaths to Edward Lord Zouch, Robert Lord Rich, Sir 
Drew Drury, and Sir John Peyton, his manors of Grimsthorpe, 
of Will, of Eresby, of Spillsby, &c. &c. his great mansion-house 
called Willoughby House, in Barbican, &c. to hold during the 
minority of his son and heir, Robert Bertie ; and on his decease 
without issue, during the minority of his other sons. 

Moreover, he in most humble and dutiful manner desired her 
most gracious Majesty, that in some respect of his loyal and 
ready heart always to do her all faithful service, it would please 
her Majesty to grant the education and wardship of his son and 
heir, and one lease of her Majesty's third part of his lands during 
his nonage, to the said Lord Zouch, &c. whereby her Majesty 
would most royally respect his long and affectionate service to- 
wards her. And for a small remembrance of his loyalty and 



440 willoughby's will. 



duty which he had always observed towards her Majesty, he 
desires she would accept of a cup of gold to the value of £100, 
or some jewels of that value, as may best content her, and best 
represent the loyalty of his heart. He ordains his son Robert, 
sole executor ; the Lord Zouch, &c. supervisors, till such age as 
by law he can take upon him to be executor ; and then, after 
adding a number of other bequests, among which is one to his 
son Robert of a chain of gold, with the Palsgrave's figure set in 
diamonds, given to him by the said Palsgrave, he concludes 
thus : " Thus acknowledging myself most bound unto God, that 
neither made me abound with worldly trashe, nor yet suppressed 
me with poverty ; expecting richer joys that never faile in his 
hiest kingdom, whereunto, through his mercy, I have by the 
seale of faithe, set forward on foote, and apparently discerned 
the difference between heaven and earthe, and so apprehended 
stedfastly the joys of one, by what I have temporally here ob- 
served. For I am sure my Redeemer lyveth, and He shall stand 
the last day upon the earthe ; and though after death worms 
shall destroy this body, yet shall I see God in my fleshe, whom 
I myself shall see, and mine eyes shall behold, and no other for 
me, though my veynes are consumed within me. 

" So to his mercy I commend you all, beloved race, and 
frendes \ 

"Dated at Berwick, August 7th, 1599." 

This affectionate farewell to his friends, and the expressions of 
religious trust and Christian hope, with which his testament both 
commences and closes, form the best conclusion to the history of 

^ Ex Regist. in Cur. Prerog. Cant. Vocat. Woodhall, qu. 58. 



Lord Willoughby ; and having followed hira throughout his 
career of military glory and soldierlike bravery, it is satisfactory 
to part with him at the threshold of the tomb (where his mortal 
remains were deposited by those of his parents) with a reliance 
on that Divine mercy, to which he so earnestly commends him- 
self in this last record of his wishes \ 




* Lord Willoughby's wife (the Lady Mary Vere) died a. d. 1624, and left 
five sons, and one daughter, Catherine, married to Sir Lewis Watson, of 
Rockingham Castle, in the county of Northampton, afterwards Lord Rock- 
ingham ; the eldest son, Robert, succeeded his father (Peregrine) as Lord 
Willoughby, and was afterwards created Earl of Lindsey. 

Family of Peregrine Bertie, Lord Willoughby : 

L Robert, of whom more hereafter. 

2. Peregrine, who at the creation of Henry, Prince of Wales, was by the 

King (in a bill signed by his own hand) appointed to repair to Durham 
House, and was there made one of the Knights of the Bath. He mar- 
ried Margaret, daughter of Nicholas Saunderson, Viscount Castleton, 
and was ancestor to the Berties of Low Layton, in the county of Essex. 

3. Henry, ancestor to the Berties of Lound, in Lincolnshire. 

4. Vere. 

5. Roger. 

6. Catherine, wife of Lord Rockingham. 

His two younger sons had no children. — Vide " Ancaster," in Collins's 
Peerage, and Biographia Britannica. 



3 L 



APPENDIX. 



[Art. A.] 



For other authenticated accounts of the Une here given, see MSS. in 
Queen's College, Oxford, F. 1, p. 19, beginning thus : " Bertie qui tres 
arietes belli Machinas in Clipeo gestavit," and giving Philip as the first link, 
and as using these arms in the twelfth century ; Wood's MSS., in Sheldon's 
handwriting, in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, No. 8465, F. 3, p. 38 ; 
Lansdowne MSS., British Museum, 205, f. ^2 ; and Rawhnson's MS., B. 73, 
Bodleian Library, Oxford, which gives this account : " Philip Berty, Esq., 
who entered England with Henry the 2nd, 1154, being a servant of the 
household to the said King, derived his pedigree from Leopold Berty, Con- 
stable of Dover Castle in the time of King Ethelred, before the Conquest, 
a~o 979." . . " King Henry y^ 2nd gave all the lands of this Leopold Berty 
in Bartiesteit and in Bertrop Villa, now Barsted, to the aforenamed PhiHp. 
He bare quarterly 1. A. 3 battering rams sable-headed B. garnished A. 
2? sable a castle triple towered. A', bellicoso impetu fractum, &c." — Collins, 
who corroborates the above authorities, professes to derive his account, 
given in 1709, from a MS. in the Cotton Library, a great portion of which 
valuable collection was afterwards burnt in 1731. 



3 L 2 



444 APPENDIX. 



[Art. B.] 

Ex veteri quodam Scripto in pergameno. 

BoREALE latus hujus monasterii sumptibus edificari suis 
fecit quidam Jeronimus Bertie^ qui sepultus jacet in sa- 
cello ubi insignia sua ponuntur ad columnam viz tres 
arietes bellici et castrum arietatum. De quo notandum 
est, quod sui majores liberi Barones fuerunt in Bertiland 
quae est in finibus Prussiae, et insulam banc cum Saxoni- 
bus invaseruntj quorum unus nomine Lupoldus Bertie 
Constabularius fuit arcis Doveriensis temporibus Edelredi 
regis Angliae, arcem praeterea habuit et urbem a suo no- 
mine vocatam Bertiestett prope Maideston in isto Comi- 
tatu Kanciae, Nam stett Saxonico vocabulo sonat urbs, et 
ad bunc usq^ diem restat ibi pagus Berstett vulgo nun- 
cupata. Iste Lupoldus dum litem babuit cum Monachis 
Augustinensibus in Cantuaria pro decimis quarund terraru 
suaru quas cum vi multis armatis stipati auferre conati 
sunt, restitit illis filius primogenitus Lupoldi quo etiam in 
conflictu interemptus est. De isto homicidio graviter con- 
questus est apud regem Edelredum Lupoldus, sed frustra. 
Nam Elpbegus Archiepiscopus Cant regis anm ad mona- 
chos flexerat quod adeo egre tulit Lupoldus ut modis 
omnibus solicitavit Swenu Danoru regem ad invadendu 
regnum et expellend regem, pollicitans se illi facilem 
aperturu viam ; assentitur Swenus subito advolat cum 
magna classe divisa, cujus altera pars Northumbricos in- 



APPENDIX. 445 



festat, altera Kantiam. Prsesto adest illi Lupoldus qui 
junctis cum Sweno copiis Cantuariam obsidet^ qua ex- 
pugnata Archiepm captivu abduxit^ et in ultionem occisi 
filii sui inverse decimandi ordine novem pro numero mo- 
nachos^ proh nephas, trucidans^ decimo cuiq^ pepercit, 
ipmcjj Regem adeo premebant, ut ad Normanniam fugitans 
regnum suum hosti reliquerit. Gesta sunt haec Anno Dni 
1014. Caeterum mortuo Sweno revtit Edelredus, et Danos 
omni crudelitatis genere prosequitur, ita ut vice versa 
nunc Burbachius Bertie unicus superstes filius Lupoldi^ 
conscius paterni sceleris, ad Robertum regem Galliae con- 
fugerit, a quo honorifice acceptus, ducta Gallica foemina 
de sede ibi figenda cogitavit. Permansit itaq,, ipse et sua 
posteritas in Gallia usq, annu Dili 1154. Quo quidam 
Philippus Bertie de eadem familia una cum Henrico ejus 
nominis secundo Rege Angliae ad has oras appulit. Qui 
propter bellandi peritiam gra principis patrimonium suum 
in Berstett recuperavit. Iste Philippus genuit Martinum, 
Martinus Robertum, Robertus Wilelmu, Wilelmus Ed- 
wardum, Edwardus Jeronimum praefatum, qui vixit tem- 
pore Henrici Quinti apud Berstett. Cumq, forte fortuna 
Monachus una dominica Quadragesimae praedicaret in 
ecclia ibi vicina, multum invehebat contra monachatus 
contemptores et osores, recensebat illud nephandum homi- 
cidium olim contra monachos Cantuar perpetratum, et 
dignum Dei in homicidas supplicium praesente Jeronimo, 
qui sua natura ad iram pronus et furibundus finita con- 
cione statim in monachum irruit illumq, martirisassit, si a 
piis circum stantibus non fuisset impeditus. Res delata 
est ad Archiepm excomunicatur Jeronimus : excoicatus 



446 



APPENDIX. 



nec precibus nee preeio absolvi pot : nam aeeusatur quasi 
reinquinatus seelere majorum suoru. Cogitur Romam 
proficisei unde tandem absolutus rediit iis illi injunctis : 
viz. ut die festo vel dominico in monastr Cantuar publica 
missa audita misericordia primum ab Archiepiscopo, se- 
cundo a monachis humillime precata^ peccatis confessis, 
absolvatur et benedicatur, dein corpus Dfii sumat, neq^ 
carnibus vescatur priusquam haec acta sint. Praeterea 
pro fructibus penitentiae dignis, duo mille aureos in sacra 
monasteria pro sua et antecessorum suorum animabus im- 
pendat. Itaq^ praeter caetera pia benefacta sua auxit istud 
templum novo latere. Et quamvis istis sumptibus divitiae 
ejus prorsus absorptae erant, congregavit sibi multo splen- 
didiores in regno caelesti. Cujus animae propitietur Deus. 
Amen. 

Extracted from a Manuscript in the Library of the College 
of Arms, marked " Glover's Collect." A. p. 25. 

Chas. Geo. Young, Garter. 



f 



APPENDIX. 



447 



[Art. C. No. 1.] 




The Armes and Creste of Thomas Bertye of Berested 
in the Countye of Kente gentillman and at this Jnte tyme 
Captayne of Hurste Castell for y® Kings Ma*^^ he bereth 
Silver the fawlcys or mottons the bodyes of Tymb*^ heddid 
armed horned asur two above one upon the Tymber a 
Ryng of the same upon his helme on a Torse silver and 
sable on a hussok verte a date tree the dates in theire 
prop couler leved verte manteled geules dobled silv^ as 
more plain apereth here depicte Yeven by me Thomas 
Hawley ats Clarencieulx the x*^ daye of Julye in the 
fourthe yere of the Reigne of o'^ Sovereigne Lorde King 
Edward the vj*^ &c. 

The above is a Copy of the docquet of the Grant, as remain- 
ing in the MS. 2 H. 5, p. 67 ^, containiag grants by Thos. 
Hawley, Clarenceux, in the College of Arms. 

Chas. Geo. Young, Garter. 



448 



APPENDIX. 



[Art. C. No. 2.] 




TO all nobles and gentilles 
these present Ires readinge heer- 
inge or seeinge Thomas Hawley 
ats Clarencieulx principall Herald 
and King of Armes of the South 
East and West partes of this 
realme from the ryver of Trent 
southward, sendeth humble co- 
mendacion and greeting Equitie 
willeth and reason ordeyneth that 
men vertuous and of noble cou- 
rage be by their merites and good 
renowne rewarded not alonly their 
persons in this mortall lyf so brief and transitory but also 
after theim those that shalbe of their bodyes descended to 
be in all places of honor with other nobles and gentilles 
accepted and taken by certeyn enseignes and demon- 
strances of hono'^ and noblesse, that is to say blason 
healme and tymber, to th^end that by their en samples 
other may the more enforce theim selfes to have perse- 
verance to use their dayes in feates of armes and works 
vertuous to gett the renowne of auncyent noblesse in their 
Lignes and posterities^ And therfor I Clarencieulx not 
alonly by the comon renowne, but also by the report and 



witnesse of dyvers worthy to be taken of word and cre- 
dence^ am plainly advertised and enfourmid that Thomas 
Bertie of Berested in the countie of Kent gentleman is 
descended of an howse undefamed and beinge at this pre- 
sent tyme Capitayne of Hurst Castell for the Kinges 
Ma*^® and hath of longe tyme used himself in feates of 
armes and goode works so that he is well worthy to be in 
all places of hono^ admitted nombred and taken in the 
company pf other nobles and gentiUs^ and for the remem- 
brance of the same by the vertue authoritie and power 
annexed attributed gyven and graunted by the Kinge our 
Souveigne Lordes highnes to me and to my office of 
Clarencieulx Kinge of Armes by expresse wordes under 
his Ma^^^^ most noble greate scale have devysed ordeyned 
gyven and graunted to the said Thomas Bertie gentleman 
and for his posteritie th^ Armes and Creast as hereafter 
followeth, That is to say, Sylver three faulcys of Mottons 
the bodys of tymber hedded armed horned asure upon 
the tymber a ryng of the same two above one. Upon his 
healme on a torse silver and sable on a hussok vert a date 
tree and the dates in their proper colour levyd vert, man- 
telled geules doubled silver, as more playnly apereth 
depicted in this margent. To have and to hold for him 
and his posteritie and they it to use and enjoy for ever- 
more. In witnesse wherof I the said Clarencieulx Kinge 
of Armes have signed these presentes with my hand and 
sette therunto the scale of my Armes with the scale of 
my office of Clarencieulx Kinge of Armes. Yeven and 
graunted at London the x*^ day of July in the fourth yere 
of the reigne of our Souveigne Lord Edward the Sixt by 

3 M 



450 APPENDIX. 



the grace of God Kinge of England ffraunce and Ireland 
Defendo"^ of the faith and of the Church of England and 
Ireland under Christ in earth the supreme hedd. 

Par moy Clarencieulx 

Roy Darmes. 

Extracted from a Manuscript in the Library of the College 
of Arms, marked " Glover's Collect." A. f. 41. 

Chas. Geo. Young, Garter. 



[Art. C. No. 3.] 

Bertie. 

Philippus Bertie oriundus a Leopaldo de Bertie Castri Doverise Consta- 
bulario tempore Regis Edelredi ante Conquestum Angliae Dno villse non 
procul a Medestone in Com. Kantise quae ab ejus nomine adhuc appellatur 
Bertiestate vulgarius (licet corrupte) Barsted. Qui quidem Philippus in- 
tra vit Angliam cum Henrico Secundo Rege Ano 1154, cui ob res preeclare 
gestas in bello charior facti idem Rex dedit omnes terras in Bertiestate 
quondam Leopaldi antecessoris sui 



Martinus de Bertie 




RoBERTUs de Bertie 




WiLLiMus DE Bertie 




1 
Edwardus de Bertie 





Ieronimus de Bertie 
vixit temp. R. H. 5. 



Robertus de Bertie 



Robertus de Bertie === 



WiLLiMUS de Bertie == 



Thomas de Bartie, Ar. 

Capitaneus Castri de Hurst 

in Com. Southt. 



Rlia . . 

Pepper. 

filia 

Say de Co. 

Salop. 



RiCHARDus Bar- 
tie Ar. fil. et 
hseres. 



Catharina Ducissa SufiFolcise 
Baronissa de Willoughby : filia 
et unica haeres WUli, Baronis 
Willoughby de Eresby. 



Carolus Brandon Dux 

Suffolciee : primus 

raaritus. 



Peregrinus Bartie 
Bare Willoughby de Eresby. 



Susanna Comitissa 
Cantise. 



Extracted from a Manuscript in the College of Arms, entitled " Vincent's 
Baronagium," and marked No. 20, p. 112. 
College of Arms, \Wi January, 1843. Chas. Geo. Young, Garter. 

See also Vine. Ear. 20, p. 22, for the Pedigree and Arms of Bertie, Lord Willoughby d'Eresby. 

3 M 2 



452 



APPENDIX. 



[Art. D.] 

Amongst the Receiver's accounts for the county of 
Southampton, in the custody of the Keeper of Her Ma- 
jesty's Land Revenue Records and Inrolments, is the 
following : 



Coni 
South? 



Compus Dni Chidioci Pawlet Rec Generalis om 
illo^ hono<i Castro^ Dnio^ maSioa Terr^ Tento^ 
possessionu ac alio^ hereditam Quo^cuq^ tm 
Spualiu q^m tempaliu nup infra Guhnac Cur^ 
Augm ^ Revenc Corone Dne Rne existeS Et 
que modo ad Supvisione^ ^ ordinac Cur*^ dee Dne 
Rne Sccij fs apud Westm assigna? existunt Quern 
quidm Dnm Chidioc Paulet nup Rex Edwardus 
vj* fra? dee Dne Regine Marie p tras fs pateS 
da? apud Westm xviij° die Januarij Anno Regni 
fs tercio constituit ^ ordinavit Rec General om 
suo^ possefs ^ hereditamen? tm infra dcm Com 
South? qm infra CorS Glouc et Wiltfs Hend 
tenend ^ gaudend Offic pred p se vel p sufficien? 
Depu? fs sive Depu? suos sufficieS duran? vi? fs 
Videl? tm de ofnib} ^ singlis recepconih} fs de 
exi? pfic -^ RevencoS om *3 singlo^ possessionu 
infra CoiS pred ac de Arr^ fs pprijs -^ at psona^ 
in pede Compi fs de Anno px peed in Com ^d 
pendeS q^m de omih} Mifs Cus? Expenfs ^ 
SolucoS p ipm circa exerciconem Offic fs in eodm 



APPENDIX. 



453 



Com facS "3 Solu? a festo Sci Michis Archi Anno 
Dne Marie Regine Primo usq^ idm fes? Sci 
Michis Archii extunc px sequeS Annis Regno^ 
P^ ^ Rne Philippi ^ Marie Primo et Secundo Scil? 
p uno Anno integro et inferius. 

Vidett 



Et in confs denar'^ Soi 
Thome Bartue CapitaS dci 
Castri ^ Janitor ej^dm ac 
at Souldar^ ^ Machinator^ 
ihui Videlt dco Capitaneo 
jux ra? xx^ p diem viij**'. 
Souldar^ sub se existeS ca- 
pieS in? se iiij^ p diem 
US Janitor^ jux ra? viij*^ p 
diem US souldar^ sibi as- 
signa? ad vj*^ p diem unacu 
xjce9 Machina? capieS inter 
se v^ vj^ p diem Mro Ma- 
chinator*^ ibm ad viij<^ p diem 
Vidett p eo^ Vad a primo 
die Januarij Anno primo 
Rne niic Marie usq^ ultim 
die Decembr extunc px 
sequeS Annis Regno^ 1^ "j 
Rne primo ^ scdo Sci3 p 
unu AnS integru ut p3 biit 
inde coram Diio Thes ex- 
amina? "^ MaS fs signa? 
Et in confs 



SoluconS 

vad 

CapitaS 

Machina? 

3 ai Mili? 

Custod^ 

di9fs' 
Fortref? 
Dne Rne 
sup ptes 
MaritiiS 
m Lorn 
South? 



Castru 
voc le 
Hurste 



'':xij®:vj^ 



ccxxxvij^^ V 



454 



APPENDIX. 



denar^ sot Xpofero Rypyng- 
don Deputa? CapitaS Cas- 
tri pd p vad fs jux Ra? xij^ 
p diem ^ uS Soldar^ sub se 
existeS ad vj<^ p diem p vad 
fs debi? p tempus pd ut p 
bitt inde coram Dfio Thef? 
examia? -3 maS fs signa? 
P3 xxvij^^ vij^ vj^. In toto 
ut in pcedeS 



Office of Land Revenue Records and Inrolments, 
24th July, 1844. 



T. R. Fearnside, 
Keeper of the Records. 



In the Account for the 2d f 3d of Philipp and 
Mary, the following entry appears : 

Castrum voc le Hurste. — Et in Cons Denar^ sot Henr^ 
Fraunces Capi? dci Castri f Janitor*^ ejusdm ac at 
Soldar^ ihm. Viz. Deo Capi? jux ra? xx"^ p diem, &c. 
&c. 



In the Account for the 2d year of Elizabeth, the 
following entry appears : 

Castrum voc le Hurste. — Et in Denar^ solu? Thomae Ca- 
rewe nunc CapitaS dci Castri et Janitor ejusdm ac 
alijs Soldar^ ibm. Viz. Deo CapitaS juxta ra? xx"^ 
p diem, &c. &c. 



[Art. D. No. 2.] 



r 



County of 
Southampton. 



^ 



The Accompt of Lord Chidiock Pawlet, Receiver-General 
of all those honors, castles, lordships, manors, lands, tene- 
ments, possessions, and other the hereditaments whatsoever, 
as well spiritual as temporal, being late within the ordering 
of the Court of Augmentations and Revenues of the Crown 
of the Lady the Queen, and which now are assigned to the 
survey and ordering of the Court of the Exchequer of the 
said Lady the Queen at Westminster, which Lord Chidiock 
Paulet, the late King Edward the Sixth, brother of the said 
Lady the Queen Mary, by his letters patent dated at West- 
minster the 18th day of January in the third year of his 
reign, constituted and appointed Receiver- General of all his 
possessions and hereditaments, as well within the said county 
of Southampton as within the counties of Gloucester and 
Wilts. To have, hold, and enjoy the aforesaid office by 
himself, or his sufficient deputy or deputies, during his life. 
That is to say, as well of all and singular the possessions 
within the aforesaid county, and of the arrears of himself 
and other persons pending at the foot of his accompt of the 
year immediately preceding in the aforesaid county, as of 
all mizes, customary expenses, and payments made and paid 
by him about the execution of his office in the same county, 
from the feast of St. Michael the Archangel in the year of 
the Lady Mary the Queen the First, to the same feast of 
Saint Michael the Archangel then next following, in the 
years of the reigns of the King and Queen, PhiUpp and 
Mary, the First and Second. To wit, for one whole year, as 
hereafter. 

That is to say. 



And in like money paid to Thomas 
Bartue, Captain of the said Castle, 
and Porter of the same, and the 
other soldiers and engineers there. 
That is to say, to the said Captain 



456 



APPENDIX. 



Payments of 

Wages to 

Captains, 

Engineers, and 

other Military 

Keepers of 

divers 
Fortresses of 
the Lady the 
Queen, upon 
the sea-coast 
in the county 

of 
Southampton. 



Castle 

called 

The 

Hurst. 



after the rate of 20d. per diem. 
Eight soldiers under him, taking 
among themselves 4s. per diem. A 
Porter after the rate of 8d. per diem. 
A soldier assigned to him at 6d. per 
diem, together with eleven engineers 
receiving between them 5s. 6d. per 
diem. To the Master Engineer there 
at 8d. per diem. That is to say, 
for their wages from the first day of 
January in the first year of the pre- 
sent Queen Mary, to the last day of 
December then next following, in 
the years of the reigns of the King 
and Queen the First and Second. 
To wit for one whole year, as ap- 
pears by a bill thereof before the 
Lord Treasurer examined, and sign- 
ed with his hand, £237 5s. Od. And 
in like money paid to Christopher 
RypjTigdon, Deputy-Captain of the 
aforesaid castle, for his wages after 
the rate of Is. per diem, and a sol- 
dier being under him at 6d. per 
diem, due for his wages for the 
aforesaid time, as by a bill thereof 
before the Lord Treasurer exam- 
ined, and signed with his hand, ap- 
pears, £2^ Ts. 6d. In the whole as 
in the preceding years.— 



£. s. d. 
264 12 6 



In the Account for the 2d and 3d years of Philipp and 
Mary, the following entry appears : 

Receiver's Castle called the Hurst. — And in like money paid to Henry 
accounts. Fraimces, Captain of the said Castle, and Porter of the 

same, and the other soldiers there. To wit, to the said Cap- 
tain after the rate of Is. 8d. per diem, &c. &c. 



APPENDIX. 457 



In the Account for the 2d year of EUzabeth, the 
following entry appears : 

Receiver's Castle called the Hurst. — And in money paid to Thomas 
accounts. Carewe, now Captain of the said Castle, and Porter of the 

same, and other soldiers there. To wit, to the said Cap- 
tain after the rate of Is. 8d. per diem, &c. &c. 

Cornwall, Wm. Poulet Lord Seynt John was appointed Captain of Saint 

&c. Inrol- Andrew's Castle at Hamul, in the County of Southampton, 

ments, lib. 5. by letters patent, 17 July, 1 Edward VI. To hold the 

fo. 17. said office during his life, at a salary of |gl9 3s. 4d. 

Lib. 13. Sir Thomas Gorge, Kt. Mil. was appointed Captain of Hurst 

fo. 129. Castle, 5th James the First. To hold the said office after 

the rate of Is. 8d. per diem, &c. &c. 

The above payments are extracted from the Docu- 
ments in the custody of the Keeper of her Majesty's 
Land Revenue Records and Inrolments, 24th July, 
1844. 

T. R. Fearnside, 
Keeper of the Records. 



[Art. E. Fartl.] 

List of Deeds bearing the signature of the Berties : — 

A charter dated 35 Ed. I., by which William de Ffrenyngham confirms 
to John, son of Sir Roger de Northwode, and others, his freehold tenement 
in Aldyntone juxta Thomham. 

To this charter, John and Bartholomew de Berteghe are attesting par- 
ties. Thornham is a part of Bearsted. 

In the 38 Ed. 3, John Berteye witnesses a confirmation from Sir Jno 
Northwode to W. Ffrogenhole and others ; and another charter m the same 
year. 

3 N 



458 APPENDIX. 



John Bertegh and Ric^ Bertegh witness a charter, 28 
Feby, 48 Ed. 3. 

John Berteye, do. do. 2 Rich^ 2. 

In the 14 H. 4*^^ Richard Bertegh grants to W™ Eger- 
ton, of Thurnham, and Thomas Mellere, of Lenham, a 
piece of land called Helde, in Thornham, dated "the 
Saturday before the feast of St. Nicholas Bp, 14 Hen. 4.^' 

Thomas Bertye witnesses a charter at Thornham, 29 
Hen. 6. 

Extracted by the Rev. Lambert Larking from the 
Thumham Charters among the valuable muniments 
of Sir Edward Dering at Surrenden Dering. 



[Art. E. Part 2.] 

Vicesima Dno Regi E tercio post conquestu Anno Regni 
sui primo a Laicis in com Kane concessa. 





* 


* 


* 

* 


^ 


* 




* 




Eillesford. 




















Hundr de 


Eyhorne. 








Hunte. 


* 


* 


* 


* 


^ 


* 


* 


* 


Dene. 


* 


* 


* 


* 


* 


* 


* 


* 


Stede. 


* 


* 


* 


* 


* 


* 


* 


* 


HoUane. 


* 


* 


* 


* 


* 


* 


* 


* 


Teghe. 


* 


* 


* 


* 


* 


* 


* 


* 


Dene. 


* 


* 


* 


* 


* 


* 


* 


* 









APPENDIX. 


Wode. 


* 




* 






* 


* 


Clyue. 


* 


* 


* 


Box:. 


* 




* 



* * * * 
Ricus de Berghestede . . iij §. ij d. q^ 

^^ ^^ ^^ ^t» ^^ 

^^ ^^ ^^ ^* ^s 

Groue. * * * * 

« ?JC ?jC 3|s 

Joties de Bertegh. . vij s. vij d. ob. 

* * * * 

Groue. * * * * 

* * * 
Lenham. * * * * 

Joties de Bertegh xd. 

Slo. * * * * 

* * * 

In the xx«^° of 1 Ed. III. Lath of Aylsford, H. of 
Eyhorne : 

Lenham. Johannes Peper iij §. j d. 

In the Roll of the xv^^ t x'^ of 6 Ed. 3, Lath of 
Eylesford, Hundr. of Eyhorne : 

D Johe Peper xx d. 

6 Ed. III. H. of Eyhorne, L. de Aylesford, co. 
Kane : 

I> Bartho de Sco Leodegario x s. v d. oh. 

I> Rogero de Northwode .... xxviij §. iij d. ob. 

3 N 2 



460 APPENDIX. 



a 



D Rogero Hadde xiij §. iiij d. ob. 

I> Roberto le Hadde f ) . . ^ , 

_,^ -^ > XIX s. XI a. ob. q 

Pho f re suo. J *^ ^ 

I> Wifto le Hunte de Hallenbrok .... xiij s. iiij d. 

6 Ed. III. In the Account of the Collectors of the xvth 
f xth in the County of Kent, of 6 Ed. III. in the 
Lathe of Aylesford and Hundred of Eyhorne, the 
name of Johan de " Berthgh " occurs as contributing 
£l. 0. IJ. towards the tax. 

The XV f x was levied: viz. the xth on the 
inhabitants of boroughs f towns, and the xvth 
on those not living in boroughs and towns. See 
Rolls of Parliament, ii. 447. 

8 Ed. III. In a similar Account of 8 Ed. III., in the same 
lathe and hundred, the names of Richard de Berteghe 
and John de Berteghe occur, the former contributing 
105., the latter 8^., towards the tax. 

11 Ed. III. In a similar Roll of 11 Ed. III., in the same 
lathe and hundred, are the following : 

D Johe fii Robi de Berteghe vj s. 

I> Rico de Berteghe iiij §• 

D Johe Berteghe iiij §. 

I> Relicta Barth Berteghe xviij d. 

20 Ed. III. In a similar account of 20 Ed. III. for the 
first year's collection in the same lathe and hundred, 
are the following : 



APPENDIX. 461 



I> Isabeft Berteghe xij d. 

I> Johe Berteghe x d. 

I> Jofee Berteghe xij d. 

20 Ed, III. In a similar Roll of 20 Ed. III., for the se- 
cond yearns collection in the same lathe and hundred, 
the following occurs : 

I> Johe de Berteghe iij §. 

25 Ed. III. In a similar Roll of 25 Ed. III. the name of 
Berteghe does not occur. 

46 Ed. III. In a similar Roll of 46 Ed. III., in the same 

lathe and hundred, are the following : 

Johes Berteghe vj s. 

Js Berteghe " viij s. 

Alic Berteghe xij d. 

Johes Berteghe xij d. 

47 Ed. III. In a similar Roll of 47 Ed. III., in the same 

lathe and hundred, the following occur : 

I> Johe Berteye . vj s. 

D Johe Berteghe viij §. 

D Alicia Berteghe xij d. 

I> Johe Berteghe xij d. 



462 



APPENDIX. 



[Art. F.] 

This indenture was made between John Pympe and 
Thomas Bertegh, and Richard his son, witnessing the 
lease of the manor of Otham, in Kent, to the said Thomas 
and Richard Berteghe, for a term of eight years, at a 
rental of one hundred shillings. It runs thus : 

" Manerium suum de Otham cum terris, pratis, pascuis, 
et pasturis redditibus servitiis sectis curiarum et omnibus 
pertinentiis suis dicto manerio spectantibus salvo tamen et 
reservato praefato Johanni Pymps heredibus et assignatis 
suis toto bosco vocato le covert/^ &c. &c. Dated 

Otham, 
12*^^ June, 

23 Hen. 6*^. 



The above extract is from the original indenture, which in February, 
1843, was in the possession of the Rev. Thomas Streatfield, of Chart's Edge, 
near Westemham, into whose hands it fell, amongst the papers of Scott of 
Scottshall, who inherited it from the Pympes. 



[Art. G.] 

Copus Rici Arnet & Johis Philpot Gardiano& 
ffraternita? Corpor^ xpi in Maydeston a festo 
natiuita? Sancti Johis Bapte^ A° Dm millimo 
cccc™** Ixxxj™^ vsq^ festu nativita? Sci Jofiis 
Bapte^ extuc px seques vid} p vno anno integro. 
Arrerag* Jn ^mis iidem respondet de vj ti xviij^ v* ob. 
arreragiis vltimi Copoti A'' pcedet put p3 in pede 
eiusdm Copote vltra xix^ iiij^ ob. in manb} Johis 
Bele & Johis Arndlee defuc? nup Gardiano^ dee 
ffraternita? 

Recepcoes "1 

ffratru & > Georgius Nevytt,Dfis de Bergevene, vj^ viij<^ 

Sororj J Thomas Bourgchier de Ledes Miles, vj^ viij^ 

Dns Thomas Abbas de Boxlee . . iij^ iiij*^ 

Dris Robert^ Wode prior de ledes . vj^ viij"^ 

Magister Johes lee magister Collegii 

Maydeston ij^ viij*^ 

Dns Johes Walleys xvj^ 

Dns Johes Munden Vacarius de Boxlee, xx'^ 

Dns Wiftms Brown viij^ 

Dns Wittms Page ....... vj^ 

Henricus iferrers Miles . . . vj^ viij*^ iiij b3 

frumeti 
Johes Brumston Armiger .... iij^ iiij*^ 

Ricus Colpeper Armiger .... iij^ iiij^ 

Johes Brode ij^ 

Johes Mascall de loose iiij^ 

Johes fFarhm ijMn pane 

Johes Person xvj Rabett® 

Johes Gold vj*^ 

Johes Bertey vj^ 






[Art. H.] 

^^ de Robero Berty p firma rectorie de Barsted, 4/. 13^. 4c?/^ 

Note extracted by tlie Rev. Mr. Streatfield, of Chart's Edge, from a rent- 
roll of the Priory of Leeds, temp. Henry VII., purchased at the sale at 
Leeds Castle m 1831, by Mr. Rodd. 



[Art. I. Part 1.] 
Extracted from the Registry of the Archdeacon's Court of Canterbury. 

IN dei noie Amen qrto die mensis Octobris Anno dni 
millimo quingentesimo pmo. Ego Robertus Berty de 
pochia de Bersted in Com Kancie Can? dioc compos 
merits et in sana memoria existens condo testm meu in 
hunc modu Inpmis do et lego aiam mea^ deo oinipotenti 
beate Marie Virgini et oiiiib) Sanctis eius Corpus que 
meum sepeliend^ in Cimetterio ecclie pochialis de Bersted 
p'' die? Itm lego sumo Altari ibm pro decis meis oblits 
viij^ Itm lego liii ste Crucs stan? in Cancello juxta 
Altare ibm viij"^ Itm lego Ini ste Crucs in Nave ecclie 
ibm vj^ Itm Ifii ste trinitats ibm iiij*^ Itm liii ste Katerine 
ibm vj^ Ac etia^ hujus testi mei facio ordino et constituo 
Mariona^ Ux mea^ et Thoma^ Burbage Executores meos 
Itm lego eid Thome p labore suo vj^ viij^ Residua vero 
omS bonor^ meor''^ post debita et legata mea pus psoluta 
do et lego p^dic? Marione Ux mea ut ipsa^ ordinet et dis- 
ponat p aia mea et aiabus parentu meor^ ac omS fideliu 
defunctof sic* ipa melius videbit^ deo placere hiis testibs 



Dfio Rofeto Vicario de Bersted pdic? Willmo Hadsole, 
Willmo Cartar et alijs. 

This is the last Will of me Robert Berty aforesaid, made 
the day and yere of our Lord God aforewrytten and the 
xvij yere of King Herry the vij^^ of and in all my Londs 
and Tents w* all their Appurtennce lying in the pisshes of 
Berghsted and Maydeston in the which Willia^ Pepu 
Willia^ Hadsole and Robert Carter by me of confidence 
ar^ infeofFed as by a dede to them by me made more 
playnly apperyth First I will that my said FefFeis aftre 
my decesse shall lett Marion my Wif to have enjoye and 
occupie my Messuage whiche I dwelle in w* all the Londs 
to the same Messuage pteynyng unto the tyme that 
Thomas my Son come to the Age of xxj yere in keping 
appon the same competent relations. And when the 
said Thoins comyth to thage of xxj yere Then I will 
my Wif shal have half my said Messuage, that is to 
say, the Northe Parte, with the Barne and Gardyn, 
whiche was late ooS John Bartie, and a Croft of Lond 
called Hawkes Lond a pee of Land called Helfeld w* all 
their App'^tenncs To have and to hold thaforesaid half 
Messuage w* all their App'^tenncs to the said Marion du- 
ring the lif of the same Marion Also I will that Maryon 
my Wif shall paye to Johane my Doughter v marke to her 
maryage and v marke w* in the space of a yere aftre her 
maryage Also I will my Executes shortely aftre my de- 
cesse shall sell my Messuage w* all th Appurtenncs lyin 
in Maideston next to a Strete called Yerlys Lane And 
the money therof comyng to be delived to Maryone my 

3o 



1 



466 



APPENDIX. 



Wif to thentent to pforme my Bequestys aforewrytten 
And if it happen that the said Johane dye or she be 
raaried then I wdll the said x marke shall be disposed 
for mein the Churche of Bersted in forme folowing, that 
is to say every every yere during xx yere vj^ viij^ to, 
be disposed for Annyvsaries for me Also I will that Tho- 
mas my son shalhave when he comythe to the said age 
of XX yere the south pte of my dwelling hous with the 
Stable Barn f further house and all the Lands and 
Tents to the same pteynyng except and reseved allway 
such lands and Tents as is afore bequethed and willed 
to Maryon my Wif during her life. And aftre decesse of 
Marj^on my Wif I will that all my said Londs and Tents 
unbequeathed hole shall remayne unto Thomas my Son 
and to the heires of his body lawfully begotten undre 
forme and condition folowing, that is to say that Thomas 
my Son or his Executo'^s shall pay to Willia^ my Son 
when he comy th to thage of xxi yere x'^ And if it happen 
the said Thomas my Son die w* out heire of his body law- 
fully begotten Then I will all my said Londs and Tents 
hole shall remayne to Willia^ my Son and to his heires 
of his body lawfully begotten And if it happen the said 
Willia my Son die w^ out heire of his body lawfully be- 
gotten Then I will all my said Londs and Tents hole shall 
remayne to Johane my Doughter and to her heires and 
assignes for ev Also I will that the longest lyvar of Tho- 
mas and Willia^ and Johane shall have enjoie and possede 
all my Londs and Tents in fee symple Also I will that 
Willia^ my Son shall have half my cotage gardyn and 
croft lying to the playru at Berghsted to hym and to his 



i 



APPENDIX. 467 



heires for ev Also I will that Maryon my Wyf shall dis- 
pose for me at the day of my yeres mynde vj^ viij^ and so 
she in like maner xl® to dispose for me at every yeres 
mynde unto the said Thomas my Son come to the said 
age of xxi yer^ Also I will that my Sonnes Thorns and 
Willia^ shalhave my working Toles such as be for macyns 
crafte ^ 

Probata xvij° Febr'^ Jur^ Cur^ it>m et Willi 
Cartar Cfsaque est Administratio ex*^ resv^^ 
potestate uno cu venit. 



[Art. I. Part 2.] 
Extracted from the Registry of the Archdeacon's Court of Canterbury. 

IN the Name of God Amen the xxvijth day of Decembre 
and in the yere of oure Lorde God m'cccccxviij and the 
xth yere of the Reigne of Kyng Harrye the viij*^. I Elis 
Berty of the pishe of Bredgare beyng in hole mynd 
thanked be God ordeyne and make my present Testament 
and last Will in this wise First I geve and bequeith my 

* The mystery of masonry was at this period at its height, and so highly 
in repute, that gentlemen were not only adepts in the art, but frequently 
possessed tools and insignia of the craft, which they transmitted to their 
heirs. Their political influence in England was probably never greater than 
during the reign of Henry VII., as they had always been considered sup- 
porters of the house of Lancaster, and their Chapiters were in consequence 
prohibited by a Parliament under Yorkist influence, in the reign of Henry 
VI., who was himself Grand Master of the Order. Henry VII. was also 
Grand Master, and, it is said, was succeeded by Cardinal Wolsey, whose 
successor was Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex. 

3 o 2 



468 APPENDIX. 



soule unto Almyghty God to oure blessed Lady the Vir- 
gin his Modre and to all the holy company of hevyn and 
my body to be buryed in the churcheyard of Saynt John 
Baptist of Bredgare foreseid Itin I bequeith to the high 
Au? there for my tithes and ofFeryngs forgotten xij'^ Itin 
I bequeith unto the lights of oure blessed Lady xij'^ Itin 
I bequeith to the croslyght viij'^ Itin to the lyghts of 
Seynt Anthony ij® Also I bequeith to the lights of Saint 
Xpofer xij^ Also I wull in the day of my buryeing to be 
bestowed x® And also at my monethes day to be bestowed 
other x^ Also at the day of myfl annyvsary to bestowe 
vis yiijd Also I wull Joha^ne Berlyng have a Chiste that 
was Elys Arowes of Barton and a Coulett that was Elis 
Rowyes Itin I bequeith unto the sayd Johane Berlyng 
xx^ And thereof to be payed at the Fest of Seynt John 
Baptist next comying Also I bequeith Johane Attwood 
my kynnyswoma^ x^ Also I bequeith to the makying of 
a new sepulcre ' vi^ viij*^ Also the next yere af? the seid 
first yeresmynde to be bestowed vi^ viij^ The residue of 
all my goods my detts and bequests content and payed 
I geve and bequeith to James Bertye my brodre the which 
James I make and orderi myS Executor and StephyS 
Berelyng to be myS Ovsear and he to have for his labo'^ 
and diligens to me showed x^ Theis witness Richard 
Cave. Lawrence Baker and John Dythtuii and other 

moo. 

Probatum fuit supra scriptu testm xiiij° die 

mensis Januarij Anno diii myllmo cccccxviij° ac 

^ " A representation of the entombment of our Saviour, set up in the 
Roman Catholic Church at Easter, on the north side of the altar, near the 
chancel." See Parker's Glossary of Architecture, vol. i. p. 334. 



APPENDIX. 469 



approbatu &c. comissacjj fuit Administratio omS 
et singulorq^ bonorqj die? defunc? &c. executori 
in eod tes? noiat pmi? in forma juris jurat &c. 

Robert Wharton, ) __ . 

_ _ _ ^ > Registrars. 

R. Manners Croft,) 



[Art. K.] 



This payment is from a rental of the Customary and 
other tenants of the Archbishop of Canterbury, as Lord of 
the Manor of Maidstone, in the second and third years of 
Henry the Eighth, 1510 and 1511, which is now in the 
Library at Lambeth Palace. 



[Art. L.] 



Among the Records preserved in the Treasury of the 
Exchequer in the Chapter-house, Westminster, and in the 
custody of the Master of the Rolls, pursuant to stat. 1 & 2 
Vict. c. 94, to wit, in the Bundle of Fines of Michas Term, 
38 Hen VIII. is contained as follows : 

Hales narr^ 

In? Wiftm Pack ^ Rofetm Joyce Quei? et 
Ricm Bertye 3 Thomam Bertye geSos Deforc de 
uno mesuagio uno gardino uno pomario duob3 
orreis triginta acris ?re trib3 acris prati decem 



470 



APPENDIX. 



acris pasture ^ trib} acris bosci cum ptiS in 
Maydeston ^ Bersted Unde ptitm convencois 
sum fuit in? eos ^c Scitt qd pdci Ricus ^ Tho- 
mas recogS pdca teS cum ptiS esse jus ipius 
Witti Ut itt que iidem Wifts ^ Rofetus hent de 
dono pdcox Rici ^ Thome Et ift remis ^ quiet- 
clam de ipis Rico ^ Thoma ^ hered ipius Rici 
pdcis Wiito ^ Rofeto "3 hered ipius Wifti imppm 
et ^?ea iidem Ricus ^ Thomas concesserunt 
p se •;] hered ipius Rici qd ipi waran? pdcis 
Witto ^ Rofeto ^ hered ipius Witti ^dca te8 
cum ptiS con? oines hoies imppm Et p hac 
recogS remission e quietclanl waran? fine ^c idem 
^ Robtus 
sic orig Wilts ^ deder^ pdcis Rico ^ Thome sexaginta 
libras sterlingoa 

I> Oc? Sci Michis anno regno^ Henrici 
Octavi Dei Gra Angt FranS -^ HibS 
Regis Fidei Defens ^ in ?ra ecciie An- f- IngiP 
glicane ^ Hifenice supmi capitis a conqu 
xxxviij^ 

In dorso pclam 



Kan3 




At this " Court Baron of S'. Leger, held the 1 5*^ day of April, 22 anno 
Queen Eliz^h. anno Dom. 1580, appeared Thos. Gritton, and acknowledged to 
hold of the s^. Lord of the Manor of Leeds, one messuage situate at Otriche 
in Bersted, in Burgo de Bersted, abutting to the lands of Robert Berty to- 
wards the West, to the king's highway towards the East, and holds by fealty 
suit of Court, &c.. Rent vjd." 

The above is an extract from a Court Roll of Leeds Manor, translated 
from the original Latin by Mr. Clement Smythe of IMaidstone. 

The *' Robert Bertie " (whose " heirs " are herein mentioned) was proba- 
bly not living at the time, though the lands still retained his name. 

N. B. A moiety of the lands in Bersted and Thurnham which went by the 
name of Berty or Barty lands, are specified in a deed of covenant at the 
time of Charles the Second, having then passed into the Haule family. In 
the year 1661, Henry Haule died seized "of all that messuage or tenement 
and farm, with the appurtenances, called Barty, otherwise Berty, in the 
parish of Thurnham, in the said County of Kent ; and of all lands, meadows, 
pastures, feedings, wood ground thereunto belonging, and therewith then 
used and enjoyed, contg. in tot. by est. 106 acres, lying in the several 
parishes of Thurnham and Bersted, in the County of Kent, or one of them — 
one cottage or small tenement, &c. &c. All that the said capital messuage 
or tenement" did contain, "with the appurtenances, and also that piece or 
parcel of land thereunto belong^, or therewith then used, containing in tot. 
by estat. 11 acres, more or less, adjoining or abutting to a watery way there 
being towards the West, &c. &c. &c." 

From a deed entitled " An Abstract of the Title of Mr. 
John Legg, to a moiety in fee of the messuage and lands 
in Thornham, alias Thurnham, and Bersted, in Kent, 
called Barty Farm and Frapnells," copied, by Mr. Clement 
Smythe. 



472 



APPENDIX. 



[Art. N.] 

In the Valor Ecclesiasticus Hen. 8. Vid. Cantuar. Com. Kane. p. 74, in the 
account of the possessions of the Priory of Leeds, is the following : 



vijli. vjs. viij< 



The Man', of Barstyd. 

The yearly value of this manor of Barstyd . . 

The value of the parsonage of Barstyd, w*^ glebe and all 

manner of tythes vijli. xviijs. jiijd. 

In the charter of Henry VIII. to the Dean and Chapter of Rochester, 
the description of his grant is as follows : " Omnia ilia maneria nostra de 
(inter aha) * Bearsted in dicto comitatu nostro Kantise cum eorum juribus 
&c. &c.' Quae quidem maneria cum suis pertinentiis nuper Monasterio 
sive Prioratu de Ledys in dicto comitatu nostro Cantise modo similiter disso- 
luto dudum spectabant et pertinebant aut Parcelli possessionum nuper 
Monasterii extiterunt." 



[Art. 0.] 

To prevent confusion between the direct line of ancestry down to Richard 
Bertie, and the collateral branches of his family, the names of the latter are 
here given, with such circiraistances respecting them as could not well form 
a part of the body of the narrative. In a deed in the Augmentation Office, 
occurs the name of a Thomas Bartiewe, in the 24th and 25th years of Henry 
the Eighth ; also those of Jelett Bartyue and Jofeis Bartyue, in a Hanaper 
Roll. See this Appendix, art. P. ; and in the documents of the Rolls Chapel, 
Chancery -lane, is to be found a grant to Francis Bertye of an annuity of 401. 
for life, from King Henry the Eighth, in the 38th year of his reign, " for good 
and faithful service to us performed." See this Appendix, art. Q. 



APPENDIX. 473 



[Art. P. No. 1.] 

W. N. 5615. Cart. Ant. 

in Augm. Off. 
Wolnesey, T. 11. 

24-25 Hy VIII. 
Compotus Thome Bartiewe deput. Philippi Parrys 
armigeri occupante officium Thes. ibidem anno cons, dni 
Stephani Wyntofi Episcopi secundo de anno integro finito 
ad fm Sancti Michaelis Archangeli et regno Regis Henrici 
octavi fidei defensoris xxv*^. 
A Roll of 3 cons, membranes. 



[Art. P. No. 2.] 



In an account of James Risley, Esq'"®. Treasurer of Wolne- 
sey of the 17th of James I. reference is made to a rental 
"per Thomam Bartue deput. Baft ibidem^' in the reign 
of Henry VIII. 



[Art. P. No. 3.] 

I> Carta Jelett Bartyue de indigen fiend . . xvj s. viij d. 

I> Carta Johis Bartyue de indigen fiend . . xvj s. viij d. 

temp. H. 8. 
From a Hanaper Roll. 

This is most probably from an imperfect Roll, the exact 
date of which cannot be ascertained. 

From amongst the Miscellaneous Records of the 
Queen's Remembrances. 

3 p 




[Art. Q. No. 1.] 

Among the Records in the Public Record Office, Rolls 
House^ and in the custody of the Master of the Rolls, pur- 
suant to statute 1 & 2 Vict. c. 94 ; to wit, in the Patent 
Book of the Auditor of the Receipt of the Exchequer, 
No. 2,'''' fol. 38j it is contained as follows : 



(Title on Liber Patenciu A fo Sci Michis Archi A<^ xxxvii™° 
tlie ^ ... . .. - ,. .. 

Cover.) 5^ niic Henr vnj"' vsq^ xxvnj'''' die January Anno 

xxxviij'^^ ^ pdci quo die dcus Rex obijt. 



Litere Henric'' octau^ dei gra Anglie frauncie ^ hifenie 

Fraun- I^cx fidei defensor f in Terra Ecctie Anglicane f 
^^^j. hihnie supmu Caput onib} ad quos psentes tre 
puenSint sattm Sciatis qd nos de gra nra spiali ac 
ex certa scientia f mero motu hris necnon in 
cosideracoe boni veri f fidelis suicij nob p dilcm 
suientem nr m Fraunciscum Berti ante hac impens 
f impos?um impendend Dedim'^ f Concessim^ ac 
p psentes Dam f Concedim Eid Francifsco Berty 
quandam Anuitatem sine Anualem feod quadra- 
ginta librae s?lynggo^ ffend f pcipiend anuitatem 
pdctam sine annualem feod quadraginta libra^ 
pfato Francisco durante vita sua naturali de The- 



APPENDIX. 475 



sauro firo ad Receptam Sc'cij nri p mafJ Thes f 
Caniario^ nro^ ibid p tempore Existefi ad quatuor 
anni ?minos vidett ad festa Natalis Dni Anncia- 
cois Be Marie Virgnis Natiuita? sci Jotiis Bapte 
f Scti Michis Archi Equales porcoes Annuatim 
soluend durante vita sua pdca et vlteriu de vbe- 
riori gra nra dam p p'sentes Concedim pfato 
Frauncisco tot ^ tantas denario^ sumas ad quot f 
quantas diet anuat feod quadraginta libra^ a festo 
sci Mictiis Archi quod Erat in anno regni nri 
Tricessimo Septimo huccusq., se extendit f attingit 
H''end f pcipiend Eidm Frauncisco iuxta ra? i^ 
porcoes supdct de Thesauro nro pdcto ex dono 
iiro spiali absq, Compoto seu aliquo alio pinde 
nob hered f successoribus nris reddend Soluend 
vett faciend Eo qd expfsa mencio de vero volore 
Annuo aut de ctitudine pmifso& aut de alijs donis 
sine Concessioib} p nos Eidm Frauncisco ante 
hec Tempora fact in psentib} minime fact Existit 
aut aliquo statuto actu ordinacoe puisioe siue 
restriccoe inde in contrm fact Edi? ordinal seu 
puis Aut aliqua alia Re Causa velt ma?ia quacunq^ 
in aliquo non obstaS In Cuiu Rei Testemoniu 
has Iras nras fieri fecim patentes. Teste me ipo 
Apud Westm decimo septimo die Octobr Anno 
regni nri Tricessimo Octauo. 

Powle^ 



3 p 2 



476 



APPENDIX. 



[Art. Q. No. 2.] 

Among the Records in the Public Record Office^ Rolls 
House^ and in the custody of the Master of the Rolls^ pur- 
suant to statute 1 & 2 Vict. c. 94 ; to wit^ in the Roll of 
Accounts of the Four Tellers of the Receipt of the Ex- 
chequer, for one year ended at Michaelmas, 1 Edward VI. 
(under the heads here unwritten) it is contained as fol- 
lows : 



(Mem. 15.) Chalon! Termio Michis anno xxxviij^ R^^ Henr^ 
octaui Tempore Thome Due NorfF Thesaur An- 
glic. 

* * * 



Franco bartye fuient Dni ^ de Anuitate 
sue ad xP^ p Annu sibi debit p hoc festo 
Michis an*^ xxxviij^ ^ pdic rec denar*^ p 
maS ppas p vnu Annu integr^ p bre de 
hoc T^mio. 



)> xPi 



(Mem. 41.) Chaloner Termio Pasche Anno primo R^^ Ed- 
wardi Sexti Tempore Edwardi Due SoiSs The- 
saur Anglie. 

* * * 

Franco Barty vni fuient dnnj Regis de 
aiiuit suo ad xl^ p Annu sibi debit p hoc 
Festu Pasche anno pmo ^ Edwardi sexti ^ xx^^ 
rec den p man^ ppas p bre de hoc 



m? 



mio. 



APPENDIX. 



477 



[Art. R.] 



In Dei nomine, Amen. Per prsesens publicum Instrumentum cunctis ap- 
pareat evidenter : Quod anno Domini Millesimo quingentesimo trecesimo 
tertio secundum computationem Ecclesise Anglicanee, Indicto septimo ; 
Pontificis Sancti in Christo patris et domini nostri, domini dementis 
. . . ejus nominis septimi Anno decimo . . . Februarii die xvii ; in 
quodam superiore cubiculo intra Collegium Corporis Christi in Universitate 
Oxonise sito versus partem apsricam dicti Collegii . . notarii publici . 
testium infra notatorum prsesentia constitutus personaliter .... Ro- 
bertus Morwent dicti Collegii Vice presses, quosdam Johannem Gale in Com. 
Devon, natum, xvi annorum setatis circiter festum Sti Gregorii ult. William~ 
Bulkley in Com. Bedford natum, xv annorum setatis circiter festum Jo- 
hannis Baptistse proxime futurum, et Ricardum Barteio in Com. Hampt. 
natum xvi annorum cetatis circiter festum Nativitatis Christi ultimum, in disci- 
pulos dicti Collegii electos juratosque corporaliter ad Sta Dei Evangelia 
(cujus Juramenti tenor inseritur in libro statutorum dicti Collegii in Capite 
de discipulorum juramento . Ego N. in Collegii Corporis Christi Oxonise 
discipulum electus juro, &c.) pro discipulis dicti Collegii. 

Then follows the attestation of the Notary and his witnesses, that they 
were truly and correctly admitted on the day and year specified. 



Register of Admission, from the Archives of 
Corpus Christi College, Oxford. 



478 



APPENDIX. 



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The incorrectness of the preceding pedigree is shown by the following 
Table, drawn up for that purpose. In order to establish any connexion 
between WUloughby and the royal houses mentioned, it wUl be necessary to 
prove that William, Lord Willoughby married a daughter of Lodovico II., 
Marchese di Saluzzo, by Joanna, daughter of Gulielmo, Marchese di Monte- 
ferrato and Marie de Foix. 



Charles III. = Eleanor 



of Navarre. 



1st Husbd. 

Martin, K. 

of Sicily. 



of Castile. 



Blanche, 
d. 1441. 



2n d Husbd. of 

Blanche. 

John II. of 

Navarre in 

1425, of Arra- 

gon 1458. 

d. 1479. 



Gaston, Comte = Eleonora. 



2nd Wife of John. 

Juana de Cordova, 

dau. of the Admiral 

of Castile. 



The Catholic Sovereigns. 



de Foix. 
d. 1472. 



in.l435. 
d. 1479. 



Ferdinand, 

K. of Spain. 

b. 1453. 



Isabella, 

Qn. of Castile 

and Leon. 






Gaston de Foix, 
from whom, by 

female line, 

came Henr. IV. 

of France. 



Gulielmo, = • Marie 



Marchese di 
Monteferrato. 



Lodovico II. 
Marchese 
di Saluzzo. 



de Foix. 



Juana, 

wife of Philip 

of Austria. 



Joanna. 



Charles V. 



Maria di 
Saluzzo. 



== William, Lord 
Willoughby 
d'Eresby. 



Ist husband. 
Charles Brandon, 
Duke of Suffolk. 



Catherine, 
Baroness 

Willoughby 
d'Eresby. 



M/ 



2nd husband. 
Richard Bertie. 



I 

Catharine of 

Arragon, 

wife of Arthur, 

and Qn. of 

Henry VIII. 



Whence Lily obtained his information we cannot find, nor is the exist- 
ence of Maria di Saluzzo certain. She is not mentioned by Guichenon, or 
other writers on the subject. The arms, too, borne by William, Lord Wil- 
loughby, as those of his wife (see cuts 1 and 2) differ altogether from those 



480 



APPENDIX. 



THE ARMS OF 
1. 




or Saluces. 



of Willoughby 




and Bertie. 

(Lansdowne MS. 205, f. 71, 72.) 

of Saluzzo, which are gules a chief argent, as they have always been borne by 
the Dukes of Savoy and Kings of Sardinia. 

Robert Glover, Somerset Herald, temp. Elizabeth, says, (in a volume of 
his Collections, Harl. MS. 807, fol. 120,) that Lord Willoughby married the 



APPENDIX. 481 



Lady Maria de Salinas, daughter of John " Sauch," or " Saduz Alto," of Sahnas, 
" Secretary to the Queen of Portugall, the Princess of Casteel, and daughter 
to the CathoUc king," whose arms Glover gives as "azure in chiefe on a tower 
a scaling lather or, in base 2 tents arg," which somewhat resemble those given 
in the cut. Glover mentions that the " Lady Ynez of Albernoz and Salinas," 
one of the sisters of Lord Willoughby's wife, manned Francis Guevara of 
Stanyott, co. Lincoln, descended from the old Spanish family of Velez de 
Guevara, and he gives a table of their descendants. Glover's account is so 
far corroborated by facts, that Peregrine, Lord Willoughby, speaks repeat- 
edly of "his kinsman Guevara." (See p. 405 of this work.) This alliance, 
however, is not to be found in the pedigrees of Guevara given in the Lin- 
colnshire visitations of 1564 and 1592. In R. Mundy's copies of those Visit- 
ations of Lincolnshire, he mentions an Amcotts who married a Guevara, 
and he gives " Salinas " as the name of one of their children. 

It is a curious circumstance, that one branch of the Velez de Guevara's 
were Seiiores de Salinillas ; but in the pedigree of that family given by 
Lopez de Haro, there is no mention of any connexion with England or with 
Willoughby. The Guevara arms are — Or, three hendlets gules, each charged 
with a cottice arg. surcharged with 3 ermine spots sable. 

The title of " Conde de Salinas" was borne by a branch of the Sarmiento 
family, but in their pedigree there is no trace of any marriage with Wil- 
loughby. The Sarmiento family bore for their arms gules, thirteen byzants, 
four, four, four, and one. Had the Willoughbys descended from a Sar- 
miento, Gondomar, in all probability, would have claimed them as kinsmen. 



3 Q 



482 



APPENDIX. 



[Art. T.] 



(Burghley Papers, 1538—1552. Bibl. Lausd., No. 2, art. 17.) 



Hit is sayd that the best meane of remedie to the sick is first playnly to 
eonfesse and to disclose the disease wherfore bothe for remedie and agayne 
for that my disease is so strong that hit will not be hidden I will discover me 
vnto yo^. ffu'st 1 will as hit were vnder benedicite and m high secresie de- 
clare vnto yo^ that all the world knoweth though I goo never so covertly in 
my nette, what a veery begger I am. This sicknes is as 1 have sayde I 
promise yo^ increasethe mightily vpon me. Amongst others the causes 
therof, if yo^ will vnderstand not the least, the Queues child hath layen and 
yet dothe lye at my howse wth her companie abowte her hooly at my charges 
I have writen to my lady Somerset at lai'ge w^h was the let I wrote not this 
yfth mjTie awne hand vnto yo^, and amongst other things for the child that 
there may be some pention alotted vnto her acording to my lordes grace 
promise. Noav good Cicill help at a pinche all that yow may helpe, my lady 
also sent me word at Whitsentide by Bertue that my Lordes grace at her 
suite had graunted certeyne nurserye plate shuld be delyuerd w^^ the child. 
And lest there might be stay for lacke of a present bill of suche plate and 
stuff as was there in the nurcerye I send yo^ one here inclosed of all such 
parcelles as were apointed out for the childes only use and that yo^ may 
the better vnderstand that I cry not before I am pricked I send yo^ 
also m'^es Eglenbres lettre vnto me, who w* the maydes nourrice and others 
dayly call on me for their wages whose voyce myne eares may herdly beare 
but my couflfers muche wurse Wherfore I cease and committe me and my 
sickenes to y'^ diligent cure with my hertie commendaciouns to y'^ wiefe At 
my mano^ of Grymesthorpe the xxvijt^ of August. 

Yo"^ asured loving frend, 

K. SUFFOULK. 







Plate, &c. 



Beddinge & 
other stuf, &c. 



A Bille of all such plate and other stuf as 
belongethe to the norcerye of the Queues 
chHd. 

firstte ij pottes of siluer all white 

It. iij Goblettes siluer all white 

It. one salt siluer and parcell gillt 

It. a muster w* a bande of siluer and parcell gillt 

It. xj spones siluer all white 

It. a quyllt for the cradell iij pillowes and j pair fustians 

It. iij fetherbeddes iij quyltes and iij pair fustians 

It. a Testo^ of scarlette embrothered w* a Cointerpoint 

of silke faye belonging to the same and Curtens of 

Crjmsyn taffetta 
It. ij Counterpoints of Imegerye for the no'^ces bedd 
It. vj pair shetes little worthe 

It. vj fair peces of hanginges w^in the Inner Chambre 
It. iiij Carpetts for wyndowes 
It. X peces hanginge of the twelve manethes w^in the 

utter chambre 
It. ij Quyshyns clothe of gold 
It. j Chayre of clothe of gold 
It. ij wrought stoles 
It. a Bedstedde gillt w' a testo'^ and counterpoint w* 

Curtens belonginge to the same. 

It. ij mellche beastes whiche were belonginge to the 
norcerye The whiche it maye please yo^ grace to wryte 
maye be bestowede vppon the ij maydes towardes ther 
maryages wch shalbe shortelye 







It. one lute. 


1 






Indorsed, To my loving frend M' Cicil attendant upon my 






lord protectors grace. 




1548, 


xxvij 


of August 








From my lady of Suffolkes grace to 


my m^ concerning the 






Queens child nursed at her house at 


Grimsthorpe with a bill 




/ 


of the plate belonging to the nurcery. 


Ano 2o Edw. 6tii. 






3 q2 





484 APPENDIX. 



[Art. U.] 

(Extracted from Wood's Black Letter Ballads, vol. 401. f. 57- In the 

Ashmolean, Oxford.) 

The most Rare and Excellent HISTORY of the Dutchess of 
SUFFOLK, and her Husband RICHARD BERTIE'^ 
Calamity. 

To the Tune of, QUEEN DIDO. 
Origmaily publisli'd in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth. 

1. 

When God had taken for our Sin, 

That pmdent Prince King Edward away. 
Then bloody Bonner did begin 

His raging Malice to bewray ; 
All those that did God's Word profess. 
He persecuted more or less. 

2. 

Thus whUe the Lord on us did low'r, 

Many in Prison he did throw, 
Tormenting them in Lollard's Tower, 

Whereby they might the Truth forego : 
Then Cranmer, Ridley, and the rest, 
Were burning in the Fire, that Christ profess'd. 



APPENDIX. 



485 



3. 

Smithfield was then with Faggots fill'd, 
And many Places more beside, 

At Coventry was Saunders kill'd, 

At Worcester eke good Hooper dy'd ; 

And to escape this bloody Day, 

Beyond-sea many fled away. 



i 



Among the rest that sought Relief, 
And for their Faith in Danger stood, 

Lady Elizabeth was Chief, 

King Henry^s Daughter of Royal Blood, 

Who in the Tower did Prisoner lie, 

Looking each Day when she should die. 

5. 

The Dutchess of Suffoullc seeing this. 
Whose Life hkewise the Tyrant sought. 

Who m the Hopes of Heavenly BHss 

Within God's Word her Comfort wrought ; 

For fear of Death was forc'd to fly. 

And leave her House most secretly. 

6. 

That for the Love of God alone. 

Her Land and Goods she left behind. 

Seeking still that Precious Stone, 

The Word and Truth so rare to find ; 

She with her Husband, Nurse, and Child, 

In poor Array their Sighs beguil'd. 



Thus thro' London they pass'd along, 
Each one did take a several Street, 

And all along escaping Wrong, 
At Billingsgate they all did meet, 

Like People poor, in Gravesend Barge, 
They simply went with all their charge. 



8. 

And all along from Gravesend Town, 

With Journey short, on Foot they went ; 

Unto the Sea-Coast came they down, 
To pass the Seas was their Intent, 

And God provided so that Day, 

That they took Ship, and sail'd away. 

9. 

And with a prosp'rous Gale of Wind, 

In Flanders they did safe arrive. 
This was to them great Ease of Mind, 

And from theii' Hearts much Woe did drive. 
And so with Thanks to God on high, 
They took their Way to Germany. 

10. 

Thus as they travel'd still disguis'd, 

Upon the Highway suddenly, 
By cruel Thieves they were surpris'd, 

Assaulting their small Company, 
And all their Treasure, and their Store, 
They took away, and beat them sore. 

11. 

The Nm'se amidst of all then* Fright, 
Laid down the Child upon the Groimd, 

She ran away out of their Sight, 
And never after that was found. 

Then did the Dutchess make great Moan, 

With her good Husband all alone. 

12. 

The Thieves had then their Horses kill'd. 
And all their Money quite had took. 

The pretty Baby almost spoil'd, 
Was by the Nurse likewise forsook. 

And they far from their Friends did stand, 

And succourless in a strange Land. 




13. 

The Sky likewise began to seoul, 

It Hail'd and Rain'd in piteous sort, 

The Way was long, and wond'rous foul, 
Then may I now full well report. 

Their Grief and Sorrow were not small, 

When this unhappy Chance did fall. 

14. 

Sometimes the Dutchess bore the Child, 

As Wet as ever she cou'd be. 
And when the Lady kind and mild 

Was Weary, then the Child bore He ; 
And thus they one another eas'd, 
And with their Fortunes seem'd well pleas'd. 



15. 

And after many a weary Step, 

All Wet-shod both in Du't and Mire, 

After much Grief their Hearts yet leap, 
For labour doth some Rest require. 



A Town before them they did see, 
But lodged there they cou'd not be. 

16. 

From House to House then they did go, 
Seekmg that Night where they might lie ; 

But want of Money was their Woe, 
And still their Babe with Cold did cry ; 

With Cap and Knee they Com*t'sy make, 
But none of them wou'd Pity take. 

17. 

Lo ! here a Princess of great Blood 
Doth pray a Peasant for Relief, 

With Tears bedewed as she stood. 
Yet few or none regard her Grief ; 

Her speech they cou'd not understand, 

But some gave Money in her Hand. 

18. 

When all in vain her Speech was spent, 
And that they could not House-Room get. 

Into a Church-Porch * then they went 
To stand out of the Rain and Wet ; 

Then said the Dutchess to her Dear, 

that we had some Fire here. 

19. 

Then did her Husband so provide, 

That Fire and Coals they got with Speed, 

She sat doAvn by the Fire-Side, 

To dress her Daughter that had need ; 

And while she dress'd it in her Lap, 

Her Husband made the Infant Pap. 

* Of St. Willebrode, at Wesel in Germany. 



APPENDIX. 489 



20. 

Anon The Sexton thither came, 

And finding them, there by the Fire, 

The drmiken Knave, all void of Shame, 
To drive them out was his desire. 

And spurning out the Noble Dame, 

Her Husband's Wrath he did inflame. 

21. 

And all in Fury as he stood. 

He wrung the Church Keys from his Hand, 
And struck him so that all the Blood 

Ran down his head as he did stand ; 
Wherefore the Sexton presently. 
For Aid and Help aloud did cry. 

22. 

Then came the Officers in hast, 

And took the Dutchess and her Child, 

And with her Husband thus they past, 
Like Lambs beset with Tygers wild ; 

And to the Governor were brought, 

Who understood them not in ought. 

23. 

Then Master Bertie Brave and Bold, 

In Latin made a gallant speech, 
Which aU their Mis'ries did unfold. 

And their high Favour did beseech ; 
With that a Doctor sitting by. 

Did know the Dutchess presently. 

24. 

And thereupon arising straight. 

With Looks abased at the Sight, 
Unto them all that there did wait. 

He thus broke forth in Words aright : 
Behold ! within your Sight, quoth he, 
A Princess of most high Degree ! 



3 R 



490 APPENDIX. 



25. 

With that the Governor, and all the rest 
Were much amaz'd the same to hear ! 

Who Welcomed this new-come Guest, 

With Rev'rence great, and Princely Chear ; 

And afterwards convey'd they were 

Unto their Friend Prince Casimir. 

26. 

A Son she had in Germany, 

Peregrine Bertie call'd by Name, 
Sirnam'd the good Lord Willoughbi/, 

Of Courage great, and worthy Fame ; 
Her Daughter young, that with her went, 
Was afterwards Countess of Kent. 

27. 

For when Queen Mary was deceas'd. 
The Dutchess home retui'n'd again, 

Who was of Sorrow quite releas'd 
By Queen ElizahetTi's happy Reign, 

Whose Godly Life and Piety 

We may praise continually. 



Printed for F. Cole, Thos. Vere, and James Wright. 



APPENDIX. 



491 



[Art. W. No. 1.] 



Prima pars Escae? de annis Rnox ^ f Rfie Phit ^ Mar^ 
Tertio f Quarto. 

Philippus f Maria Dei Gra Rex f Regina Angt His- 
pania^ Franc utriusq^ Sicilie Jertm f Hifen Fidei De- 
fensores Archiduces Austrie Duces ..... Mediolani f 
Brabancie Comites Haspurgi Flandrie f Tirolis Thes f 

Baronib} de Scc^o suo Saltm Volentes ctis de caus 

tenorib} qua^dam Inquisicionu nup cap? coram Wifto 
Roper Nictio Rokewood f Johe Bere Armigis Comis- 

sionarijs nris Comissionis nre eis nup direc? as- 

sigS apud Easte Grenewiche in Com Kane decimo octavo 
die Januarij ultimo p?ito .... Armigum ^ Ka?inam Du- 
cissam Suff modo Uxem ejusdem Rici ^ Margaretam 

Blakeborne nup de London GerJosam tangeS 

Vob mandam^ qd tenores Inquisicionu pdca^ cum oinib} 
eastangeS nob in Cancellar^ nram iinediate post recep 

ubicumqj tunc fuit sub Sigitt Scc^ij nri pdci dis- 

tincte f apte sine dilone mittatis f hoc bre. T. nob ipis 
apud W Februarij Annis r n ?cio ^ quarto. 

Nos Thes ^ Barones Scc^ij infraspec ptextu bris istius 
nob direc? tenorem unius Inquisic indenta? apud Est- 
grenewich in Com Kane infraspec xviij*' die Januarij annis 
infrascrip? coram Comifs inferius assigS infranoiat Ricm 

3 R 2 



492 



APPENDIX. 



Bertue Armig et Ka?inam uxem ejus modo Ducifs Suff et 
Margareta^ Blakeborne Geflosam tangeS cap? vris celci- 
tudinib} in Cancett vram huic Bri Annex misim^ eisdemq^ 
celcitudiS ulterius ctificam^ qd non sunt plur^ InquiS eos- 
dem Ricm Ducifs f Margaretam tangeS 



Pel . . . 



Th. . . 



Kane Inquisicio Indenta? Cap? apud Estgrenewiche 
in Com pdic? decimo octavo die Januarij Annis Regnoj 
Phi et Marie Dei Gra Regis et Regine Angi Hispania^ 
Francie utriusq, Cicilie Jerim et Hibnie Fidei Defensor^ 
Archiducum Austrie Ducum Burgund Mediolani f Bra- 
banc Comi? Haspurg Fland et Tirolis tertio f quarto 
Coram WiHmo Roper Nicho Rokewood f Johe Bear 
Armigis Commissionarijs eojdem Dni Regis f Dne Re- 
gine virtute Commissionis eis extra Scc^ij nup direc? f 
huic Inquisicioni consu? assigS ad inquirend de certis 
iVrticiis in eadem Commissione declara? p Sacrm Thome 
Hunt Gen? Stephi Parrett Gen? Robti Edmondes Gen? 
Thome Shepard Wiftmi Coker Thome Setcopp Rohti 
Holden WiUmi Clerke Rohti Kechell Henrici Staynsmore 
Thome Kempsall Stephi Frenche Thome Pope Wilimi 
Moger Robti Flayrbarne Rohti Hamon et Johis Wouldh^m 
Qui dicunt sup Sacrm suu quod cum Dfis Henricus nuper 
Rex Anghe Octavus pater die? Dne Regine nunc pre- 
charissimus fuisset possessiona? de Ward f Custod Corpis 
C Maritag* Agnetis WoodhuU fii f hered Anthonij Wood- 
hull Armigeri defunc? qui de eodem nup Rege tenuit 



APPENDIX. 493 



MaSiu suu de Langfford in Com Bedd in Capite p Ser- 
vicium Militare rone minoris etatis ejusdem Agnetis Jurat 
pdic? dicunt quod idem nup Rex sic inde possessiona? 
existens p Lras suas PateS qua^ da? sunt scdo die De- 
cembris Anno Regni sui tricesimo sexto de gra sua spali 
ac ex certa Sciencia f mero motu suis dedisset f conces- 
sisset inter alia ditco ^ fideli tunc Consiliario sue Anthonio 
Wingfeld p nomen dilci f fidelis Consiliarij sui Anthonij 
Wingfeld Ordinis Garterij Militis ac Vicecamar^ suo cus- 
tod corporis f Maritag predic? Agnetis absq^ dispargacioS 
Hendum Gaudendum f Possidend predic? custod Corporis 
f Maritag pdic? Agnetis absq^ dispargacoe pfa? Anthonio 
Wyngfeld executoribus f assigna? suis duraS minore 
etate predic? Agnetis Woodhuft f quousq^ pfa? Anthonius 
Wingfeld execu? vel assigS sui effec? Maritag ejusdem 
Agnetis accepissent f tiuissent Et hoc absq^ compo seu 
aliquo alio pfa? nup Regi heredibus aut successoribus suis 
pinde reddendo solvendo seu faciendo put in eisdem Lris 
PateS plenius continet'^ Qua^ quidem Lra^ Patencium 
pretextu predic? Anthonius Wingfeld fuit possessiona? de 
custod corporis ^ maritagij pdic? Agnetis Woodhull absq^ 
dispargatione Et ipe sic inde possessiona? existens idem 
Anthonius Wyngfeld p factum suu Sigift suo sigift ac 
signa? Dedit Vendidit f Concessit ppotentissimo Principi 
Carolo nup Duci Suff jam defunc? pdic? custodiam Cor- 
poris ^ Maritag* predict^ Agnetis Woodhull Hendum sibi 
executoribus f assigS suis in tam amplis modo f forma 
put idem Anthonius Wyngfeld eisdem custod corporis ^ 
Maritag* tunc huit virtute predic? Lra^ Patenciu dci nup 
Regis Henrici viij''^ rone cujus idm Dux Suff fuit de pdic? 



Ward f Maritag" pdic? Agnetis Woodhull possessiona? 
ipoq^ nup Duce Suff sic inde possessiona? exist^ postea 
apud London fecit f condidit Testamen f ultimam Vo- 
luntat^ sua f p eadm fecit ^ constituit quand^m Kate- 
rinam Ducissam Suff adtunc Uxem suam executricem 
TestameS sui pdicti Et postea apud Ottland in Com 
Surr obijt post cujus quidm mortem eadm Katherina 
Ducissa Suff ut executrix Testamenti predict^ fuit de pre- 
dict'^ custod Corpis f Maritag pdict*^ Agnetis Woodhull 
possessionat Et eadem Katherina Ducissa Suff sic inde 
possessionat^ existens ob diversas causas ipam Katherinam 
Ducissam Suff moven postea apud Grysby*^ in Com Lin- 
coln fein suu sigitt ipius Katherine Duciss Suff sigillat'"'^ 
dedit ^ concessit pdict^ Custod Corporis f Maritag pre- 
dict*^ Agnetis Woodhull cuid''^m Margaret^ Blakeborne 
adtunc svieri sue virtute quo^ quidm doni ^ concessionis 
eadm Margareta Blakeborne fuit possessionat^ de pdict"^ 
custod corpis f maritag predict^ Agnetis Woodhull f 
eadm Margaret Blakeborne sic inde possessioS existeS 
eadem Margareta Blakeborne postea p fact^ suu slgift suo 
sigillat^ apud Grysby pdict dedit f concessit pfate Ka- 
therine Duciss Suff pdict custod corpis ^ maritag predict^'' 
Agnet^ Woodhull virtute quo^ quidm doni f concessionis 
eadm Katherina Ducissa Suff fuit possessionat de f in 
pdict^ custod Corporis f Maritag predict^ Agnetis Wood- 
hull ut de bonis f cattallis ipius Katherine Ducisse Suff 
pprijs Et eadem Katherina Ducissa Suff sic inde pos- 
sessionat^ existens eadm Katherina Ducissa Suff postea 
apud Grysby^ predict^ cepit in virum quend^m Ricm Ber- 
tue virtute cujus die? Ducissa ^ Ricus Bertue fuerunt 



APPENDIX. 495 



possessioS de custod f Maritag pdic? Et sic inde posses- 
sionat^ postea ijdm Ricus Bertewe f Katherina ux ejus 
ac pdic? Margaret^ Blakeborne exist^ subdit^ dict^ Dni 
Regis ^ Dne Regine Scitt quinto die Februarij Annis 
Regno^ dco^ Dni Regis f Dne Regine Primo f Secundo 
subdole f frauduleS quandam navem apud Gravesend in 
pdco Conl Kane ceperunt f eskipaver f ab inde in eadem 
nave extra hoc Regnu Angt absq^ liceS ipo^ Dno^ ^ ^ 
Regine usq^ ptes ex terris f transmariS extra obedienc f 
dnia dco^ Dili Regis ^ Dne Regine versus f ad ptes Ger- 
manic seipos transfretaverunt f navigaverunt f it^ suu ad 
Civitatem Basilei in Germania pdict^ pfecerunt f ibm diu 
manserunt f adhuc ibm manent ac seipos inimicis ^ re- 
bellibus dict^ Dni ^ f ^^g Regine in ptibus transmarinis 
existeS f maxim e apud Civitatem predict^ existeS ad- 
heserunt sup quod dict^. Dns Rex f Dna Regina p Lras 
sub Privat^ Sigiit ipo^ Dni Regis f Dne Regine scdm 
legem f cons hujus Regni sui Anglic plures mandaverunt 
pfat Rico Bertue f Katrine ux ejus qd ipi sub eo& fide 
f legienc incontineS ad ipos Dnm Regem f Dnam Re- 
ginam indilat in Angt accederent f revenirent ibi factur^ 
f receptur^ quod p ipos Diim Regem f Dnam Reginam ^ 
Conciliu suu inde contiget ordinar Et pdict Ricus Ber- 
tewe f Kat'^ina Ux ejus spret^ mandat^ eo^dem Dni ^ f 
Dne Regine nunc ac fide f legienc pdict^ ad ipos Dnm 
Regem f Dnam Reginam in dictu Regnu suu Angt ac- 
cedere scdm mandat^ ipo^ Dni ^ f Dne Regine hactenus 
non curaver^ sed hoc obedire omnino recusaverunt in ipo& 
Dni ^ ^ Dne Regine inobedienciam ac mandat suo^ pre- 
dict^ contempt^ manifest^ f contra fidem f legienciam 



suam predict^ rone quor contempt^ f inobedienc ac ce?ox 
premissox dict^ Ricus Bartewe f Kat^ina ux ejus foris- 
fecer^ dict^ Dno Regi f Dne Regine ^dict^ Custod f Mari- 
tag* pdict^ Agnet^ Woodhull et omnia alia bona f cattail: 
sua que ipi tiuerunt seu eo^ alt^ huit dco quinto die 
Februarij annis primo f secundo supradict^ Et qd eadm 
Margaret^ Blakeborne consili modo forisfec dict^ Dno 
Regi f Dne Regine nunc omnia bona et cattalt sua que 
eadm Margaret^ tiuit dco quinto die Februarij annis primo 
f secundo supradict^ Sed que alia bona ^ catafl" pdic? 
Ricus Bertewe f Katherine ux ejus huerunt seu eo& alter 
huit in dco Com Kane dco quinto die Februarij annis 
primo ^ secundo sup^dict^ Aut que bona ^ cattatt pre- 
dict^ Margareta Blakeborne huit in predict^ CoiS Kane 
dict^ quinto die Februarij annis primo ^ secundo supra- 
diet^ Jurat^ predict^ penit^ ignorant^ In cujus rei Testi- 
moniu uni pti hujus Inquisicionis indentat^ penes pfat^ 
Commissionar^ remaneS t^m ijdem Commissionar^ q^m 
Jurat^ predict^ Sigilla sua apposuerunt al?i vero p? hujus 
Inquisicionis indentat^ penes pfat^ Thomam Hunt primu 
Jurat^ pdict^ remaS prefat^ Commissionar^ Sigift sua 
apposuerunt dat^ die annis f loco capcionis hujus In- 
quisic predict^. 

Extracted from the Documents of the Rolls' Chapel, 
Chancery Lane. 




[Art. W. No. 2.] 

Philippus et Maria Dei gratia Rex et Regina Anglie Hispaniarum Francie 
utriusque Sicilie Jerusalem et Hibernie fidei defensores Archiduces Austrie, 
Duces Burgundie Mediolani et Brabantie Comites Haspurgi Flandrie et 
Tirolis Omnibus ad quos presentes littere pervenerint Salutemi. Cum per 
inquisicionem captam apud Estgrenewiche in comitatu nostro Kantie decimo 
octavo die Januarii annis regnorum nostrorum tercio et quarto coram 
Willelmo Ropero, Nicholao Rokewood et Johanne Beare armigeris virtute 
commissionis nostre eisdem Willelmo Nicholao et Johanni directe compertum 
sit quod Ricardus Bartue et Domina Katherina Ducissa Suffolcie uxor ejus 
quinto die Februarij annis regnorum nostrorum primo et secundo absque 
licentia nostra transvecti sunt extra regnum nostrum Anglie usque ad 
partes et regiones exteras et tempore dicte inquisicionis manent apud civi- 
tatem Basilee in Germania et ibidem adherent iaimicis nostris 
inobediencia et contemptu suis perpetratis et factis erga nos et leges nostras 
AngUe in contemptum et derogacionem dignitatis et corone nostre prefate 
Regine. Et quod predicti Ricardus Bartue et dicta Domina Katherina pos- 
sessionati fuerunt dicto quinto die Februarii de custodia corporis et mari- 
tagii Agnetis Woodhill fiUe et heredis Anthonii Woodhill armigeri de- 
functi ut per eandem inquisicionem retornatarum et de recordo remanente 
in curia nostra Cancellaria plenius liquet et apparet, virtute cujus inquisici- 
onis et pretextu transgressionis et contemptus predicte Custodie corporis et 
maritagii dicte Agnetis Woodhill ac omnia bona et catalla dicti Ricardi 
Bartue et dicte Katherine dicto quinto die Februarii ad possessionem et 
manus nostras tanquam forisfacta devenerunt seu devenire debuerunt. Et 
quia eadem custodia et maritagium seu forisfactum valoris ejusdem mari- 
tagii una cum diversis maneriis terris tenementis et hereditamentis que post 
mortem dicti Anthonii descenderunt in possessione vel rencione prefate 
Agnetis in possessione et manibus nostris existunt aut existere deberent et 
ibidem existere debebunt quousque debita et legalis liberacionis inde extra 
possessionem et manus nostras prosecutis factis et habitis et eciam pro eo 
quod a festo annunciacionis Beate Marie Virginis proxime sequente post 

3 s 



diem perpetracionis couteraptus et inobediencie predicte videlicet post 
dictum quintum diem Februarij solucio et allocacio quadragiiita librarum 
quam prefati Ricardus et Ducissa antea habuerunt et perceperunt pro 
exhibicione dicte Agnetis extra curiam nostram Wardorum et liberacionum 
de exitu et profituis maiieriorum terrarum et tenementorum predictorum 
responsa in eadera curia cessauerunt et in manus nostras resumebantur ac 
eciam hactenus a dicto festo aimuuciacionis beate Marie Virginis nulla 
allocacio facta fuit in dicta curia pro exhibicione dicte Agnetis per spacium 
duorum annorum finitum ad festum Annunciacionis Beate Marie Virginis 
ultimo preterito ante datum presencium. Sciatis igitur quod nos de graciis 
nostris specialibus ac ex certis scientiis et meris motubus nostris Necnon 
pro consideracione predicta dedimus et concessimus ac per presentes damns 
et concedimus prefate Agneti Woodhill pro exhibicione sua unam mtegrara 
summam quinquaginta trium librarum sex solidorum et octo denariorum 
pro predictis duobus annis finitis ad festum Annunciacionis Beate Marie 
Virginis ultimo preterito juxta ratum quadraginta marcarum per aimum 
soluendam per manus generalis receptoris nosti*e curie predicte immediate 
super monsti'acionem presencium. Et ulterius de uberioribus graciis nostris 
dedimus et concessimus ac per prsesentes damus et concedimus prefate 
Agneti Woodhill quandam amiuitatem sive annualem redditum quadragmta 
marcarum exeuntium de redditu et profituis maneriorum terrarum et tene- 
mentorum predictorum habendam tenendam gaudendam et percipiendam 
predietam annuitatem sive annualem redditum quadraginta marcarum pre- 
fate Agneti a dicto festo Annunciacionis Beate Marie Virginis ultimo pre- 
terito ante datum presencium quamdiu maneria terre et tenementa predicta 
in manibus nostris fore contigermt ob defectum prosequucionis liberacionis 
eorundem extra manus nostras soluendum annuatim eidem Agneti aut ejus 
deputatis sufficientibus per manus dicti receptoris nostri pro tempore ex- 
istentis de redditu et profituis predictis ad festum Sancti MichaeUs Arch- 
angeh et Annunciacionis Beate Marie Virginis per equales porciones. Et 
ulterius volumus et precipimus magistro et consiliariis curie nostre predicte 
et cuilibet eorum quod statim ad intuitum presencium debitam solucionem et 
allocacionem fieri causent prefate Agneti de prefata summa quinquaginta 
trium librarum sex solidorum et octo denariorum Ac eciam juxta tenorem 
concessionis nostre predicte constantem solucionem et allocacionem fieri 
causent de predicta annuitate quadraginta marcarum et he Uttere nostre 
patentes erunt sufficiens Warrantum et exoneratio eisdem magistro et con- 
siliariis et cuilibet eorum pro complemento et obseruacione eorundem eo 



V 




quod expressa mencio de certitudine premissorum sive eorum alicujus aut 
de aliis donis sive concessionibus per nos vel per aliquem genitorum nos- 
trorum prefate Regine prefate Agneti Woodhill, antehec tempora factis in 
presentibus minime facta existit aut aliquo statute actu ordinacione pro- 
clamacione prouisione siue restriecione inde in contrarium habito facto edito 
ordinato seu prouiso aut aliqua alia re causa uel materia quacunque in 
aliquo non obstante. In cuius rei testimonium has Htteras nostras fieri 
fecimus patentes, testibus nobis ipsis apud Westmonasterium primo die Julij 
annis regnorum nostrorum quarto et quinto. 

Per breve de primato Sigillo, 

Jefferey. 



[Art. X.] 



At Greenwich, 
the 17 day of 
Sepr, 1555. 



The Lord Chancellor. 
The Lord Treasurer. 
The Bishop of Ely. 
The Lord Pagett. 
The Mr of the Horse. 



Mr. Comptroller. 
Mr. Vicechamberlain. 
Mr. Secretary Peter. 
Sir Henry Bedingfield. 



A LETTER to Sir Edward Montague & certain other Commissioners 
in Lincolnshire, for the finding of an ofiice of all such lands, goods, 
and Cattells, as the Lady Catherine Duchess of Suff'olk & Bertue 

her husband, being contemptuously without License 

departed the realme had before their 

departure within the said shire : And to do the like concerning the 
lauds, goods, and chattailes of one Meris, within the same shire. 
In which matters, being required to employ their dihgence and 
wisdoms, they be also willed in the King and Queen's Majesty s 
name to assemble themselves for that purpose the 25*^^ of this 
month at Stamford, and to give credit to Mr. Solicitor, who re- 
paireth presently unto them, sufficiently instructed in the said 
matters. 

3 s 2 



500 APPENDIX. 



[Art. Y.] 

Maydestou. Memorand. that Cristofer Herenden of Honton 
ais Hontyngton in the Countie of Kent, gentle- 
man, came into the Coeu Hall of the Towne 
and parysshe of Maydeston aforeseid the nynth 
da3'e of the moneth of June in the yere of oure 
most gcyous Soueign Ladye Elizabeth by the 
gee of God Quene of Ingland fFraunce & Ire- 
land Defender of the Feith &c. the fyfth And 
in the yere from the Incarnacon of o^ Lorde 
Jesus Crist a thousand fvve hundred three 
score and three before Robert Balser Mayor of 
the foresaid Towne and parysse of Maydeston 
Henry ffysher gentleman (and then follow se- 
veral other names) Jurates of the same Towne 
and parysshe and others then beyng ther psent 
And then and ther made earnest desyre and 
request to have certen wrytyngs and Evydences 
to be inroUed in the said Coeu Hall. The 
tenore of which wrytyngs and Evydences do 
hereafter folowe and are wreten vbatim and are 
examyned by the foreseid Mayor and Jurates 
the daye and yere aforeseid. 

This Indenture made the xxx*^ daye of March in the first 
yere of the reigne of oure Soueign Ladye Marye by the 



APPENDIX. 501 



gee of God of Inglond fFraunce & Irelond Quene De- 
fender of the Feith & in Erth of the Church of Inglond & 
also of Irelond Supme Hedd betwene Rycherd Bertye 
Esquyer and Ladye Katherine Duches of SufF: his wyfe of 
th^ one ptye and Walter Herenden of Grays Inne gentyl- 
man of th'other ptye Wytnesseth that the seid Rycherd 
and ladye Katherine in consyderacon of the good feithfull 
& trustye servyce which the seid Walter hath long tyme 
to them don & also in consyderacon of the greate paynes 
& travayle which the seid Walter hath taken & susteyned 
in there suytly causes and affayres & for the good wyll zeale 
and love w^hich the seid Rycherd & ladye Katherine doo 
beare to the seid Walter and for other good causes and 
consyderacons the said Rycherd and ladye Katheryne have 
geven graunted and assured and by these p^sents do geve 
graunt & assure vnto the seid Walter Herenden All that 
their manor's of Wheteacre & Wheteacre Brugh Walcote 
Esthall & Walcote Westhall and iij fuUyng mylls one 
come myll & x acres of pasture And also one messuage 
one garden Ix acres of lond xl acres of medowe and xx 
acres of pasture with all and syngler their apptennces & 
w*^ th'apptenncy of euye of them And with all & syngler 
lands tents & heredytaments rents pencons & svics coinons 
advowsons & Vyllanes Warrens Waters fyshyngs Corts 
letes libertyes & w* all other francheses comodytes pfelts 
appteyning or belongyng to theym or any of theym or 
beying accepted reputed or taken as pt pcell or member of 
theym or any of theym or beying heretofore sett lett or 
occupied together with theym or any of theym sett lying 
& beyng in the Townes pisshes felds or hamletts of Whete- 



acre Walcote and Redlyngton in the Countie of Norfolk 
or in the Townes pisshes felds or hamletts of Grymsbye 
& little Grymsbye in the Countie of Lyncoln or in the 
Townes pisshes felds or hamletts of Stoneley in the 
Countie of Warwycke Wyth all & syngler Deeds (&c. 
&c.) To have & to holde the seid Manor's Messuage Mylls 
lands & Tents together wyth all and syngler the Charters 
deds evydences & wrytyngs w' all & syngler other pmysses 
with their apptenncs to the seid Walter Herenden & his 
Heyres for ever to the only vse & behove of the seid Wal- 
ter Herenden and of his heyres. (Then follow covenants 
for further assurance^ &c.) 

The Fine levied hereon and the Declaration of the uses 
of the Fine. 

Signed by the Mayor and Jurates, 

p me Wiftm Astyn Recordat 
ville & pchie pdic?. 



[Art. ZL] 

(From a Copy in the State Paper Office.) 

Heraldic Papers, 1100 to 1601. (I.) 

We have conferred with four of the Judges that be now in London concern- 
ing Mr. Bertie's case, and they be all of opinion that he cannot challenge to 
have the Barony or the Title thereof in right of his wife, or else as tenant 
by the courtesy after her decease. We did make doubt whether her Ma- 
jesty might declare him L. of the Name and Title of the Barony during his 
Hfe only, and then to call him by Writ according to that declaration, and 
that they thought her Majesty might not doe. But because the corse is very 
rare, they desired to have conference with the rest of the Judges, when they 
shall come to the Towne. And they think this corse most meete to be 
decided by her Majesty, with the advice of such of her Nobility as she 
should think good. And also to use the opinion of the Offices of Arms, who 
are acquainted with some Precedents in like courses. 



G. Gerhard. 
Tho. Bromley. 



Indorsed, 

22 Apr., 1572. 
Mr. Attorney and Mr. Sollicito^ Generall to my Lord 
Burleigh, w* the Justices opinion is touching Mr. 
Bertie's Title to the Barony of Willoughby of 
Ersby in right of his wife. 



(From a Copy in the State Paper Office.) 

Heraldic Papers, 1100 to 1601. (I.) 
3 May, 1572. Mr.^ 

Attorney General to v I have sent to yoi^ Lordship here inclosed the Booke. 
my L^ Burleigh. ) Mr. Bertie's Title I think is very orderly to declare 
him to bear the Title and name of the Barony but only during his life, and 
then to remayne to the heyres of the Dutchesse where of right it ought to 
goe. And if this declaration shall first passe from her Majesty and then the 



504 



APPENDIX. 



writ follow, I think surely it will be very playiie that there can be no further 
title in the Barony but only during his life. But as to the question, it is 
moved whether this calling of the father should be any wrong to the sonne 
after the decease of the Dutches his mother, if the father do outlive. As to 
that I must needes confesse it seemeth to be some wrong to the son if he 
could clayme that title during his father's life (as indeed it is most like he 
could never doe) for although it seems to be some wrong, yet surely there is 
noe damage or losse can thereby grow to him. For it is certayne that the 
father shall have the lands during his life, and the sonne nothing but what 
his father will be contented to give him. And therefore it is not like the son 
could clayme the Title during his father's life. And the rather for that is 
more hon^^e to the son that his father should use that dignity during his life 
only. And this is all that I can say herein. 

Indorsed, 

3 May, 1572. 

Mr. Attorney Generale to my h^ Burley concerning 

Mr. Bertie's right to be Baron of Willoughby. 



(From the Original in the State Paper Office.) 

Heraldic Papers, 1100 to 16*01. (I.) 

I SEND to yo'^ L. by this bearer my servat, the bill for cofirmation, having 
used therein th' advise of Mr. Attorney Gen^all. I send also a collection 
of suche as have in the right of their wiefes enjoyed titles of honor ; though 
you required but a few names, yet I send many, because few are easily 
taken from many. And to prove the use of it in the Barony of Willoughby, 
I send two Court Rolls where you shall find hit in the title, having inqui- 
sitions and other evidences of furder prove if this seeme insufficient. 

Now yo^ L. hath lay<i the foundacon, I trust you will buyld hit up to good 
perfection, that the tenement may be to me more cofortable, and I the more 
bound, and willing to yeld yow a greater and perpetuate rent of thanks and 
assured friendship, wcli by godds grace I will not fayle to doo till I myselfe 
fayle for ev^ So I leave your L. to Almighty God. 

Fro Barbican this xiiij^li of Apl. 1572. 

Yo'^ L. humble at comawndement, 

R. Bertie. 
To the right honourable and very singular 

good Lorde the L. Burghley. 



APPENDIX. 505 



(From the Original in the State Paper Office.) 

Heraldic Papers, 1100 to 1601. (I.) 

Sir, 'sterday morning I was at yo"^ L. chamber to have spoken w* yow, but 
hearing of yo^ servants how all the night long yow wanted rest, I departed 
sory for yow, myselfe, and many moo w^^ may not spare the use of yow. I 
ment to comunicate w^h yow how the Q. Ma'^ie is well pleased at the motion 
of my L. of Leycester that my cause should be herd w^li I desire for that she 
is so diversely informed, and not thereby to make any clayme otherwise than 
may stand w*^ her Ma'^ie good pleasure. Only I wishe copetent judges, and 
spe''ally yo'^ L. for one, for that it lyeth not in the knowledge of the comen 
law, as apeareth by a president in the tyme of Henries the iiij* and fifte, 
when the L. Grey of Ruthen claymed the stile and armes of L. Hastings, 
clayming as heyre male. And forsomoche as I shall nede herein the books 
wch 1 sent to yo^ L. I pray yow that I may agayn have them wth the 
cotinuance of yo'^ good frendship. Almighty God restore yow to health and 
coserve yow restored. Fro my howse this xvjth of May. 

Yo^ L. humble at comawndem^t, 

R. Bertie. 
To the Right Honorable the L.. Burghley. 



[Art. AA.] 



In Bishop Kennett's Collections in the British Museum, Lansdowne MSS., 
folio 172, N. 940, is a list of papers, styled thus by Sir William Dugdale, 
who went down to Grimsthorpe for the purpose of arranging its scattered 
documents : 

" An alphabetical catalogue of the names of such manors and places in the 
County of Lincoln whereof the R* Hon^^e Montagu, Earl of Lindsey, hath 
diverse ancient writings and evidences, all which being confusedly mixed and 
scattered by the Parliament soldiers at the plunder of his house in Grims- 
thorpe, in the County of Lincoln, in 1643, were in March, 1646, reduced into 
order by me, William Dugdale, Chester Herald, and disposed in several 
boxes. Those which have no crosses over against them in several boxes." 

3 T 



506 APPENDIX. 



[Art. BB.] 

Secunda pars PateS de anno ^ Rne Elizabeth primo. 
m. 7. 



DlndigeSp^ REGINA Omib} ad quos -^t^ Saltm 
Peregrino s Cum dilcus f fidelis subditus nr Ri- 
Bertye. * cardus Bertye Armig Licencia Sororis 

nre Marie nup Regine Anglie prius in 
Scriptis licite obtenta in partes ?nsmarinas pfectus sit f 
in Civitate Wessalie Inferioris in Ducatu Clevensi ex 
pditca f fideli subdita nra suaq^ legittima Conjuge Kate- 
rina Ducissa Suff ibidem una cum illo p mandatum f con- 
sensum suu existerJ f comorante filiu noie Peregrinu 
genuit Sciatis qd Nos de gra nra spali ac ex eta sciencia 
f mero motu nris Concessim® Ac p P^sentes Concedim® 
eidem Peregrino Bertye si rone alicujus Legis vel Statuti 
hujus Regni subditus f Ligeus fir censeri non possit qd 
idem pegrinus durante vita sua sit indigena f ligeus Vir 
ac subditus iir heredum f successor firozt ^ qd ipe sicut 
ce?i fidelis subditi f Ligei iiri ubicumq^ infra hoc Regnu 
firm Angt oriundi ubiq, infra idem Regnu firm Angt ac 
T^ram nram Hibnie f ce?a quecumq^ T ritoria f Diiia iira 
?cte? repute? hea? ^ gubnet^ f non alit^ nee alio modo 
Quodq, idem pegrinus in omib} f omimodis Brib} Piitis 



Sectis f Querelis in quibuscumq^ Curijs nris seu eo^ alia 
aut alibi infra Regnu nrm pdcm p ipm aut cont^ eum 
psecutis affirmatis aut motis psequend affirmand aut mo- 
vendis ptitare possit f imptitari respondere t; responderi 
defendere et defendi adeo valide libe et quiete sicuti cet^i 
fideles Ligei nri infra dcm Regnu firm Angt libime oriundi 
valent et possint aut eo^ aliquis valet f potest Et ult^ius 
de ubiori gra iira Concessim* Ac p P^sentes Concedim^ 
pfato pegrino qd ipe Dnia MaSia T^ras Ten^ f cet^a que- 
cunq^ Hereditamenta infra Regnu nrm pdcm aut alia Dnia 
lira erne pquirere acquirere cape possidere f tenere ac eis 
uti f gaudere eaq^ dare vend e alienare f legare cuicumq, 
psone sive quibuscumq^ psonis sibi placuit ad libitum suu 
possit f valeat H~end sibi ad t^minu vite sue aut sibi f 
heredib} de corpore suo legittime pcreatis vel sibi f he- 
redib} suis imppm seu alit^ in quocumq. Statu Talliato 
aut Feodo Simplici sibi soli aut sibi f alijs psonis con- 
junctim quovismodo danda concedenda vendenda aut 
legenda adeo libe firme f integre sicut aliquis alius sub- 
dito^ nro^ in hoc Regno legittime pcreat^ potest f valet 
Et P^t^ia ex ubiori gra nra Concessim^ Ac p P^sentes 
Concedim^ pfato pegrino qd ipe talia tanta f similia Taxas 
Tallagia Subsidia f alia quecumq^ On^a p psona Dni 
Man^ijs T^ris f Ten^ suis supdcis aut eo^ aliquo seu eo& 
quott necnon Custumas f Subsidia nob aut hered nris 
debita sive debend p quibuscumq^ Bonis M^candicis 
M^cimonijs ^ alijs Rebj suis in hoc Regnu firm Angt aut 
alia Dnia nra inducendis ac p quibuscunq^ Bonis M^can- 
disis M^cimonijs f alijs Reb} suis ext^ hoc idem Regnu 
firm aut alia Dnia nra evehendis qualia f quanta dci Ligei 

3 T 2 



508 APPENDIX. 



et Subditi riri infra dcm Regnu nrm Angt libime Oriundi 
aut eo^ aliquis nob aut heredib} nris de jure reddere et 
solve tenent^ aut impost^um tenebunt^ ^ non alia majora 
aut dissimilia de tempore in tempus put nob et heredib} 
nris de jure emgent aut accrescent solvend dabit reddet f 
solvet Eo qd expssa mencio de vo valore annuo Dnio& 
Man^io^ T^rax Ten^ ^ Hereditamento^ pdcoa aut eoz. 
alicujus seu aliquo alio valore aut ctitudine P^misso^ seu 
eo^ alicujus aut de alijs Donis seu Concessionife} p nos 
aut aliquem pgenito^ nrox Regum Angt pfato pegrino 
fact^ in P^sentib} minime fca existit aut aliquo Statute 
Actu Ordinacoe sive Restriccoe in contrm edit^ fact^ 
ordinat^ seu pirs Aut eo qd pdcus pegrinus in pdcis 
Partib} t^nsmarinis fuit oriundus seu aliqua alia re causa 
vel mat^ia quacumq^ non obstan^ Et hoc absq^ aliquo fine 
vel feodo p P^missis aut aliquo P^missoa nob vel ad opus 
nram in Hanapio Cancellar^ fire solvend aut capiend. In 
cujus rei ^^ T. R. apud Westm scdo die Augusti. 

p Bre de Privato Sigillo. 



[Art. CC] 

Brit. Mus. Titus C. VII. fol. 215. 

Order of the Privy Council for Post-Horses, 
&c. for Somerset Herald, Greenwich, 1 July, 
1582. 

Whereas there is appointed to attend on the Lord Willoughbie for Her 
Majesty's service into Denmark, Robert Glover, alias Somerset, one of 
the Heralds of Arms, who is to repair with all diUgence tmto the town ' 
of Hull, there to embark with the said Lord Willoughby : These shall 
be to will and require you, & in Her Majesty's name straightly to 
charge and command you and every of you to whom it shall apper- 
tain to see him provided of four good and able post-horses for him- 
self, his servants, and a guide from place to place unto Hull afore- 
said ; as also of all such other things necessary as he shall require at 
your hands for the better accompUshing of his voyage, at prices 
reasonable & accustomed in Her Majesty's like services. Whereof 
fail you not, as you will answer to the contrary at ycur perils. From 
the Court at Greenwich, the first of July, 1582. 

To all Mayors, Sheriffs, Justices of Peace, Bailiffs, Con- 
stables, Headboroughs, and to all other Her Majesty's 
Officers & loving subjects to whom it may appertain, and 
to every of them. 

(Signed) T. Bromley, Cane". W. Burghley. T. Sussex, 

R. Leycester. 
F. Knollys. 

Jamys Croft. 
Chr. Hatton. Fra. Walsyngham. 

R. Sadleyr. Wa. Mildmay. 




[Art. DD.] 



Ex MS. Cotton. Titus C. VII. fo. 230. 

It hath pleased my most gracious souereigne Lady and Maisti'esse the Lady 
Elizabeth by the grace of God of England ffrance and Ireland Queene 
Defendres of the faith, to comand me the vnworthiest amonge meny her 
right worthy seruitures and subiectes to addresse myself vnto the presence 
of yow most noble and mighty prince Lord fFrideryk most worthy Kinge of 
Denmark Norway Vandaly and Gothland, Duk of Sleswyk, Hoist, Stormarsh 
and Dietmarshe, Conte of Oldenborgti and Delmenhorst, and in the best 
sort that I may to present vnto yo'^ highnes her most louinge and affectionate 
salutations, comprehending infinite well wishinges to your prosperous estate 
by encrease of hono'^ health and whatsoeuer happines may mak to the 
encrease of your greatnes, in so full and ample maner as your vertuous 
renowned lyf iustly desearueth and yo'^ princely liarte most desyreth. Who 
fyndiug certajTie places of her most honorable order of the Garter to be 
lately fallen voyde by the death of some of the greatest princes of Christien- 
dom that were knightes and companyons of the same, and calling to mynd 
aswell the mutuall long contynued freendship and amity that hath heereto- 
fore ben betwene her most noble progenitors and yours, and betwene your 
two crownes and kingdoms, as also your Maiesties owne pticular professed 
goodwill and freendship tOAvards her highnes, and the honorable speches it 
pleaseth your Malestie to hold of her highnes which reach euen to her hear- 
inge. Her highnes partly movd by those respectes but chiefly by the con- 
stant report that is gyven forth of yo'^ worthynes aswell for courage and 
valour in t}Tne of warre, as for piety Justice and all other princely qualities 
in tyme of peace, hath heretofore made choyse of yow with other great 
princes to supply the place of one of the knightes of the sayd order, in token 
aswell of her highnes thankfull acceptacion of your Maiesties goodwill to- 
wardes her, as of the lyk affection she caryeth towards yow. And that like- 
wise with the frank agreeable consent of all the other fellow knightes of the same 



APPENDIX. 511 



order ^. Which said order of the garter at these dayes gyving place to none 
thoroughout all Christiendome aswell for hono'^ antiquity and all other godly 
and comendable observations, as being meny ages since first instituted by 
the most worthy Christian prince her highnes most noble progenitor Edward 
the third of that name, king of England and of France after many tri- 
umphant victoryes and trophees gayned of his enemyes, chiefly for the 
advaunce and encreasement of the due service of God, and for the hono"^ of 
his knightes by whose prowesse and faithful! endevo^ he had so prosperously 
atchieved his fortunat enterprises : doth from the first foundation thereof 
m the choyse to be made of the knightes of the same, carry an especiall 
reason and grounde to knytte and combine those of that fellowshippe in 
extraordinary union love and freendship for their better strength and mu- 
tuall defense against their enemyes ; and in tymes past did work the lyke 
effect betwene her highnes noble progenitors and yo^^ Maii^ies noble ancestors 
Christienne and Johan both noble and renowned kings of Denmark, etc. and 
most worthy copanyons of this magnificent order. Her highnes therefore 
nothing doubteth but that yo^ Ma'i^ who is already so well encljTied of 
yr self to entertayne mutuall amity and freendship with her, being now 
drawen to it by a straighter bande such as this is, will lyk a good prince shew 
the eff'ects thereof towards her highnes accordingly. 



Ex MS. Cotton. Titus C. VII. fo. 231. 

pLACUiT meae gratiosissimee ac Supremse Domin{», Dominse Elizabethae, Dei 
gratia Angliae Francise et Hibernise Reginse Serenissimae Fidei defensatrici, 
me vmum ex infinita multitudine fidelium et idoneorum subditorum legare, 
qui suo nomine Serenitati vestrse plurima et amantissima impertirem po- 
tentissime princeps Frederice Danise, Noruagise, Gothorum, Vandalorumque 
Rex, Dux Slesuici, Holsatise, Stormarise, et Dietmarsiee, Comes in Olden- 
burgh et Delmenhorst : optaremque prosperum afflatum rerum tuarum, et 
foelicissimum cursum honoris a serenitate vestra ut animoso principe vehe- 
menter expetitum, ac multis tuis magnisque vu'tutibus iam diu debitissimum. 

Atque ad manifestiorem declarationem suse erga Serenitatem vestram 
amicissimae voluntatis, cum sit princeps nostra celeberrima, perfectissimum 
exemplum heroicae virtutis, omniumque pulcherimarum actionum : praeterea 

^ The words in italics are interlined. 



512 APPENDIX. 



quoque elegans observatrix cunctarum ceremoniarum ad Regalem animum 
pertinentium : cimique nobilissimum quendam ordinem obtineat magna- 
nimorura Equitum (quem Garterij Ordinem ajipellant) cuius iam aliquot 
loci nonnullonim exitu clarissimorum jirincipum vacare contigerunt, in 
hiinc ordinem Serenitatem Vestrara prte cseteris cooptari cupit, ac sperat, 
turn de antiquitate, turn etiam memoi'abili ejusdem conditione, Serenitati 
vestrse fore gratissimum. 

Fuit autem hie Ordo primum institutus ab augustissimse memorise Rege 
Edouardo eius nominis tertio, qui cum prseluceret omnibus principibus sui 
temporis, pietate, magnanimitate, consilio, ac de hostibus suis Gallis ac Scotis 
semel ac iterum fortissime triumphasset, hunc Equestrem Ordinem, uti bo- 
num Imperatorem decebat, ad obsequium Dei et Militum honorem incho- 
auit : vt quorum in adipiscendis victoriis fideli opera et industria usus esset, 
eosdem Gartero donaret, tanquam amplissimo virtutis prsemio, clarissimo 
insigni honoris seterno laudis monumento. Itaque reputans secum Sere- 
nissima Regina nostra, veterem illam et constantem amicitiam, quae iamdiu a 
longinquis usque temporibus inter hsec duo regna floruit : primum Henrico 
Quinto inuictissimo principe imperante, cum Christianus nobilissimus Danise 
Rex in hunc Ordinem adscriberetur : deinde vero regnante Henrico Sep- 
timo, nee muius nobili Johanne Rege Daniee eodem honore insignito ; prse- 
tei'ea quoque magna sua cum voluptate satis animadvertens Serenitatis 
Vestrse erga se priuatam propensionem, nee ignorans quam honorifice soleat 
de Maiestate sua et sentire, et prsedicare : non potuit certissima fama 
comota hsereditarise cuiusdam tuse dignitatis tum in bellica virtute, turn 
etiam in pacifica pietate ac iusticia quin una cum unanimi consensu omnium 
hujus ordinis commilitonum, Serenitatem Vestram ad defunctorum iam 
nobilium vices supplendas in hunc celeberrimum coetum eligeret in per- 
petuum testimonium mutuse inter vos et promiscuse comunionis. In quo 
quidem nihil dubitat, quin (quo se modo habet natura et ratio hujus 
Ordinis) vt ij qui eiusdem societatis sunt, arctissimo quodam amoris vin- 
culo constringantur quo tutius ac fortius inimicorum impetum propulsare 
possint : sic Serenitas Vestra (quem ad amicitiam sponte sua satis incitatum 
aspexerit) postquam hoc firmissimo nodo conglutinatus fueris, multo te 
proprius applicaturus sis. 

Quod autem tam longum intervallum positum sit inter Serenitatis vestrse 
electionem et inaugurationem in hunc celeberrimum Ordinem, et prsesentera 
eiusdem transmissionem ne forsan admirere : huius dilatationis causam, 
voluit Maiestas sua me Serenitati vestrse significare quod eodem quoque tuse 



APPENDIX. 513 



electionis temporej alios prseterea duos clarissimos principes, Imperatorem 
scilicet et Gallorum Regem in eum Ordinem ascriptos fuisse, quos cum 
iustissimis de causis nondum insigniuerit, verebatur ne illi, si Serenitatem 
vestram seorsim, a reliquis tanto honore dignitateque tam ampla decoraret, 
hoc suuin factum paulo durius interpretarentur. Sed nunc etiam eisdem 
causis manentibus quibus illorum principum inaugurationes vlterius et in 
aliud tempus producendas duxerit : tamen cum multse luces accesserint ex 
quo acceperit a Serenitate vestra gratam ac benevolam electionis vestrse 
testificationera, omni seposita mora, praedictorumque principum offensioni- 
bus quibuscunque neglectis, statuit Maiestas sua non vlterius deferre mis- 
sionem prsefati Garterij ad Vestram Serenitatem de cuius fidissima necessi- 
tudine mirum in modum sibi pollicetur. 

Nihil iam restat Rex potentissime nisi vt egomet una cum Heraldorum 
siue Fecialium hie assistentium auxilio perficiamus id quam honorifice quod 
aggressi sumus, ornemusque Serenitatem Vestram his insignibus Equestri- 
bus, turn demum temporis eoque loci, cum Serenitati Vestree oportunum 
videbitur. Ego vero (quod mearum partium est) dabo operam diligenter vt 
Excellentissimae Reginee Dominse mese mandata fideliter exequar, tibique 
(Serenissime Rex Frederice) quem pro magnanimitate, prudentia, forti- 
tudine synceroque verse religionis studio semper admiratus sum, in hoc 
officij genere cumulatissime satisfaciam. 



Ex MS. Cotton. Titus C. VII. fo. 211. 

Nos Peregrinus Dominus et Baro de Wilughby et Eresby et Gilbertus 
Dethik Eques Auratus, primus Rex Armorum et Heraldus prseclarissimi 
ordinis Garterii, Legati et Oratores Serenissimae Reginse Elizabethse Dei 
Gratia AngHse Franciae et Hibernise Reginee, Fidei Defensatricis, &c. Tes- 
tamur sacrae et potentissimae Regiae Daniae Noruegise &c. Majestati, id 
nos imprimis ab excellentissimae Reginea Maj estate demandatum esse, ut 
omne genus obsequij, muneris et officij sedulo praestaremus, ad propa- 
gandam augendamque veterem illam amicitiam et necessitudinem, quae iam 
diu iustis ac religiosis de causis inter haec duo regna intercessit : in cuius 
etiam testimonium, Maiestas sua imperauit ut hunc nobihssimum antiquis- 
simumque Ordinem Garterij Serenissimo Regi proponeremus. In quo qui- 
dem, ut hoc munus nostrum cumulatius perficiamus, simulque testatam 
reddamus, gratam et officiosam nostram voluntatem Serenissimo Regi (cui 

3 u 



uosraetipsos, de honorificis illis verbis, quibus iios prosequutus est, deque 
Regio more, quo nos nostrosque omnes accepit, mirum in modum deuinctos 
arbitramur) nihil praetermittemus, in quo (salua semper erga Supremam 
nostram Domiuam Regineam Majestatem, vera ae fideli obedientia) tam 
magnanimo, prudenti, omnique virtutum genere instructissimo Principi 
gratificari possimus. 

In liac parte cum hesterno die sermonem haberemus cum quibusdam 
Regioe Maiestatis Honoratissimis Conciliariis pro singulari sua sapientia et 
virtute nunquam satis admLrandis : et perspiceremus e scripto quodam, in 
quo capita coUoquij nostri attinguntur aliquam partem orationis nostrse non 
satis intelleetam : id nunc aggressi sumus annuente et imperante Serenissimo 
Rege, vt animi nostri rationem ac sententiam dilucidius explaneraus, ad 
Serenissimi Regis faciliorem planioremque intellectum. 

Nullo modo cogitauimus, eo tempore quo primum ad Regise Maiestatis 
prsesentiam admitteremur, subitam molestiam facessere Maiestati suae cum 
illis Periseelidis complementis : sed primum, pro legationis more, autoritatem 
nobis commissam patefacere, et credentiae quas vocant literas ostendere, 
deinde vero tradere Maiestati Suae Serenissimae Reginse literas, reliquam 
negotiorum nostrorum procurationem, illis horis relinquentes, quae pru- 
dentissimae Maiestati suae maxime oportunae videbuntur. Id solum ausi 
sumus a Maiestate Sua contendere, ut expeditam nobis audientiam faceret : 
quia pro certo tenemus, Dominam nostram Reginam, tam grate Legationis 
praematurum exitum, libenter expectare. 

Quod attinet ad ornamenta et insignia induenda, nihil dubitamus quin 
eorundem beneuola acceptatio, eum in modum quem Regia Maiestas Do- 
minae nostrae Reginoe per literas significauit, quam gratissima Regineae 
Maiestati futura sit. 

Atque hoc loco, libenter confitemur, nos plurimura debere Maiestati suae, 
quod nos tam gratiose commendauerit supremae nostrae Dominae qua quidem 
ejus Regali propentione, studium nostrum acerrimum demerendae Maiestatis 
iam ante praeclarissimis suis virtutibus vehementer inuitatum, liujus priuati 
beneficij noua accessione multo raagis incitauit. Neque id verebimur pol- 
liceri Majestatem suam nullo modo deprehensuram nos immemores, aut in 
uUo officio claudicantes, quae honorificentissimae Maiestati suae convenire 
videatur. 

Et quidem quanta cum humilitate possumus a Maj estate sua petimus, ut 
permaneat in sententia Periseelidis accipiendae, nee eum ulterius urgebimus, 
tametsi pro officij nostri ratione formulam quandam hujus negotij in charta 



APPENDIX. 515 



depinxei'amus : nisi ut primum placeat Maiestati suae, leeuae tibise subligar 
affigere, et torquem collo eircumducere (quae duo commode perficere poterit, 
sine ulla vestium permutatione) deinde ut propriis manibus reliqua orna- 
menta recipiat, tametsi eisdem non fuerit inaugviratus : postremo ut publicum 
ferat testimonium ejus gratse acceptationis, quam ante per literas Reginese 
Maiestati significauit. 

Quibus peractis, speramus fore hsec adiumento, ad amplificandam Dei 
gloriam, ad amicitiam duorum excellentissimorum principum arctius con- 
stringendam, et ad utrorumque regnorum florentissimorum, optimis legibus, 
et religione purissima temperatorum, firmissimum firmamentum. Atque vt 
ista fiant ad salutem utriusque patriae, ad solatium professorum Euangelij 
ad impiorum hominum euersionem, ardentissimis precibus a diuino numine 
contendimus, simulque oramus, ut hoc nobile par principum longa vita et 
perpetua foelicitate donet. Signatum apud hospicium nostrum in villa Hel- 
singorensi 12 die Augusti Anno M.D.Lxxxij. 



P. WiLUGHBY. 

Garter Rex Armor. 



Ex MS. Cotton. Titus C. VII. fol. 209. 

Nisi serenissima reginea maiestas domina mea suprema, coniecturam fecisset 
excellentiam vestram, apud potentissimi regis Daniee in honoratissimum 
Ordinem Garterii inaugurationem presentem esse voluisse, vel potius nisi 
pro certo sibi persuasisset, gravissimam, sapientissimam, ac magno rerum 
usu confirmatam excellentiam vestram dietee nuperrimse interfuisse : hsec 
pauca indigesta verba quae nunc milii proferenda sunt de maiestatis suae 
amica et benevola propensione erga celsitudinem vestram vt charissimum 
suum consanguineum et confederatum ac nobilissimum commilitonem unius 
societatis honoratissimse cujus ipsa caput et fundamentum est, multo sane 
aptius per maiestatis suae literas explanata fuissent et convenientius honori 
vestro, qui a teneris annis ad hanc usque setatem pro rerum suarum ges- 
tarura gloria pace belloque parta per varias nationes celebratissimus semper 
existimatus est. Sed quoniam in primo non successit ad maiestatis suae 
expectationem exoranda celsitudo vestra ut hoc secundum congratulandi 
studium e maiestatis suae sententia interpretetur, quae sane hujusmodi fuit 
ut excellentiam vestram non minus amplissime salutaret quodque credibile 
est principem tarn alti animi suavissimaeque conditionis expetere unquam 
aut optare potuisse. Quod ad me attinet, postquam acceperam excellentiam 

3 u 2 



516 APPENDIX. 



vestram tam propiuquara esse ; non incommodum putavi tantum temporis 
ab hac mea celeri in patriam festinatione mutuari, quantum satis esset ad 
istuc officium reginse dominee mese prsestandum et huic itineri ad celsi- 
tudinem vestram conficiendo. Nee dubito quin vobis utrisque arctissimo 
amoris vinculo conjunctis singulse occasiones hujus conj unctionis et bene- 
volentise stabiliendie gratissimre futurte sint, quam quidem ego ut fidelissi- 
mus subditus reginere maiestatis et amicissimus fautor vestrse excellentise 
ab optimo maximo Deo eontendam precibus fore diuturnam. 



[Art. EE.] 

Ex MS. Cotton. Titus C. VII. art. 216. 

Sacra Serenissima, Regia Danine et Noruagiae, etc. Majestas Dominus 
noster Clementissimus, hoc scripto dilucide et perclementer respondendo, se 
declarat, de honorifica traditione et acceptatione laudatissimi Equestris An- 
glici Ordinis Garetteriorum, ac de modo et ceremoniis, eo in actu obser- 
vandis. De quibus, cum serenissimse principis Dorainse Elizabethte, An- 
glioe, Francise, et Hibernise, etc. Reginse, fidei defensoris, sororis et consan- 
guineae Ma^^'s g^ge carissimse, hue misso Ambasiatore et Legato Ma^i ipsius, 
ob virtutem in primis delecto, hodiema die, familiaris communicatio instituta 
est. In eam quae infra scripta est sententiam. 

Si benememoratus Regineus Legatus, cum Armorum Rege et honora- 
tissimi ordinis istius milite, qui dominationi ipsius adiunctus est, volent ac 
constituerunt : Regiae ipsius Majestati in personali audientia, quam prima 
occasione, eam ad rem, ipsis proraptissime permittet, Perisceridem aut 
subligar, pro more recepto, alligare, ac torquem Ordinis Majestati ipsius 
circumdare ac concludere : Prseter ea vero, tam in mutatione vestium, et 
acceptatione ullius peregrini habitus, quam in primis in praestatione uUius 
obhgationis aut juramenti. A quo quidem Regia ipsius Majestas se plane 
vult liberam esse, nee ulla ratione gravatam : Majestatis ipsius condignam 
rationem habere. Tum Regia ipsius Majestas amice ac fraterne parata est, 
celebratissimum Equestrem Ordinem istum, secundum declarationes suas 
priores, ad serenissimam consanguineam sororem, et confederatam suam 
carissimam, antea amanter perscriptas, in nomine sacrosanctse Trinitatis, jam 
recipere et acceptare. Nee gravabitur deinceps, etiam habitum seu vesti- 



menta laudatissimi istius Ordin's, si Dominus Legatus ea simul exhibere 
operse pretium existimaverit, dum modo Majestas ipsius ipsis non induatur, 
honorifice accipere ac reponere. Denique etiam Domino Legato, pro officio 
suo, quo in traditione et inauguratione Ordinis istius, cum memorato armo- 
rum Rege apud nos fideliter tum functus est, sive in Uteris suis, ad Serenis- 
simam Reginam Consanguineam, sororem et confoederatam suam carissimara 
sciTiptis, sive alia idonea ratione, honorificimi ac bonum perclementer pree- 
bebit testimonium. Q,u8e quidem omnia, Regia ipsius Majestas eo modo 
fieri cupit, qui ante annos viginti, consimiliter in audientia, in qua Chris- 
tianissimus Francorum etc. Rex, Consanguineus Frater, et foederatus Ma- 
jestatis ipsius charissimus lionoratissunum Ordinem Equestrem Gallicura 
Divi Micliaelis, per Legatum fraterne obtulit, fuit observatus. 

Ideoque minime dubitat Regia ipsius Majestas quod quidem ipsum, a 
nobilissimo ac geueroso Regineo Anglico Legato, perclementer petit et 
requiret : cum utriusque, tarn Regineae quam Regise Majestatis nomine, 
variis considerationibus, ea res materiam suppeditare posset, si in traditione 
et acceptatione Insignium tam unius quam alterius laudatissimi Ordinis, 
non eadem aequalitas observetur, aut si regia ipsius Majestas se hoc nomine, 
uUius juramenti onere, quod tum non factum est, jam prsegravare deberet : 
ut Majestatem ipsius, quod onus .obligationis talis in se recipere non possit, 
non tantum reverenter habeat excusatam : verum etiam candide, ac non 
aliter quam bonam in partem accipiat, ac cum Maj estate ipsius contenta sit, 
quod inaugurationem, non alio, quam, quo jam expressum est, modo, insti- 
tuendam esse censeat. Nam et ad dilucidiorem liujus negocii declarationem, 
et ad prsecavendum omnem diversum ab eo intellectum, plane accommo- 
datum esse Regia ipsius Majestas existimavit, si, nomine traditionis celebra- 
tissimi Ordinis Equestris Anglici (quem eo, quo declaratum est, modo, 
honorifice ac fraterne acceptabit) sententiam et paratissimam voluntatem 
suam, hoc scripto compreliensam, ante explicet ac declaret, quam ad au- 
dientiam ac ipsam inaugurationem perveniatur. Quod quidem scrip tum, 
festinanter confectum, ac Regiee ipsius Majestatis manu firmatum, nobi- 
lissimo ac generoso Regineo Legato, ideo jam tradi jussit : ut et ipsius 
dominatio, sententiam suam, consimiliter scripto dilucide Majestati suae 
explicare, ac deinceps ad audientiam quam ipsius Regia ]\Iajestas tum sicut 
supra memoratum est, promptissime permissura est, in nomine Domini 
perveniri possit. 

Nam, quibus in rebus Regia ipsius Majestas Serenissimae Angliee Regineae 
Majestati Consanguinese, Soroi-i et Confoederatae charissimae, suum in grati- 



ficando et benemerendo singulare ac fraternura studium, summa cum bene- 

volentia coujunctum probare poterit, in eo, pro avita inter utramque Ma- 

jestatem ac mutua regnorum utrinque necessitudine et amicitia, se promptam 

semper et paratam exhibebit. Cujus etiam Legato et CousUiario prteeipuo 

in negocio tam favorabili ac honorifico jam hue misso, Regium favorem ac 

beueficentiam suam, perclementer defert ac promittit. Signatum in Castro 

Majestatis suse Cronenburgensi postridie Laurentii die undecima Augusti 

anno, &c. octuagesimo secundo. 

Fridericus Rex. 



[Art. FF.] 

State Paper Office, Denmark, vol. i. 

Extract of a Letter from Lord Willoughby to Sir F. Walsingham, 
the Court, 25 October, 1585 ^ Holograph. 

The whole news of my entertainment with this royal King of Denmark ^ I 
leave to report to this bearer as a present witness ; which, accomplished and 
done unto me in the most royal manner that might be, and many sweet and 

* On the same day Willoughby wrote to the Earl of Leicester, nearly 
verbatim, and in conclusion desires **to know of your journey into Flanders, 
which if it be true that 1 hear, you shall find me ready to wait on you at 
your coming, in such mean equipage as my fortune in a strange country will 
permit me." 

2 The following extract from Tenneker's letter, relative to the royal 
family of Denmark, may be interesting : 

" This King's Embassador being returned out of Scotland, I understand 
no great good liking nor special commendation to the young King in enter- 
taining of them or dismissing them. My hope was they should have made 
some good contract for marriage of the King's eldest daughter, who is now 
reasonably well grown, and like to be a goodly lady. It did me much good 
to see the two young Princes follow the King their father to the Church, and 
the Ladies to go before the Queen their mother ; for such is the manner 
both here and in Germany." 



APPENDIX. 519 



affectionate words uttered of her Majesty, he fell to inquire of English 
occurrents, wherein he was better able to satisfy himself and me both, than 
I could farther inform him, having received no letters from thence, never 
since my departure. He concluded his speech with many loving terms, 
wishing her Majesty might have no wars, but triumphantly and quietly to 
reign as she had done ; but if she needed, he would rather declare in action 
than publish in words his readiness to do for her. Uppon this King's good 
disposition, your wisdomes may work much. I take not upon me to advise, 
but (as my duty and promise binds me) to advertise 

Yours assured to my power, 

Peregrin Willughby. 
To the Right Honourable Sir F. Walsingham, 
Principal Secretary to the Queen's Most 
Excellent Majesty. 



[Art.GG.] 
British Museum, Titus C. VII. fol. 224. 

A Paper indorsed, Touching the proceedings of the Lutherians in 
Germany. [1582.] Extract. 

The controversy of the Lutherans touching the Ubiquity hath been these 
last three years prosecuted with great heat by Jacobus Andreas and Pappus 
and other, against the reformed Churches of Germany, whom they call 
Calvinists. 

How this contention hath been proceeded in by them, appeareth by 
their book, intituled " Corpus Doctrinse," and by Pappus' wi'itings against 
Sturmius. 

Their purpose in writing their Corpus Doctrinse, was to set down from 
the time of the Augustan Confession unto this day, the continuance of that 
doctrme of the Ubiquity delivered them (as they pretend) by Luther, and 
therefore that it is still to be maintained, and the impugners of it to be put 
to silence and removed from the peace of the Empire as heretics and 
schismatics. 



520 APPENDIX. 



[Art. HH.] 

State Paper Office, lioUand, 18 April, 1586. 

Extract of a Letter from Roger, Lord North, to Lord Burghley, 
Utrecht, 18 April, 1586. 

My noble and singular good Lord. Although this bearer, Sir William 
Russell, can particularly inform your Lords! lip of the succour of Grave, yet 
I will take it for no discharge of my duty and love to your Lordship. Your 
good Lordship shall have a brief report of all things passed there, as truly 
as I can, and as we have received it. My Lord sent Comit Hollock and 
Mr. Noi'ris with a 1000 men to victual Grave, if it may, having long before 
put in readiness a great number of boats, with great store of victual. The 
Count Hollock at his first coming charged a windmill which they had 
fortified, and was of importance. This he won in small time. They marched 
forward, and Mr. Norris took with him 300 men only, leaving behind him 
the rest of the forces with Count Hollock. He found a platt of ground of 
advantage by a ditch, and yt had a water on the back side, which he 
thought to have been deeper than it proved. There he began to entrench 
himself, which the enemy espying, the Count Mansfield came towards them 
with a 1000 brave Spaniards, leaving behind him 2000 moi'e, a mile off. The 
enemy gaged the water, and found it passable ; they waded through breast 
high, and assaulted Mr. Norris in his trench, where there was a notable 
fight valiantly defended of Mr. Norris and his few men ; who, finding his 
force too weak to resist the enemy, sent with all speed for the greater 
forces. The enemy did so hotly assault him, that he was driven to retreat 
to meet with the other forces. In this skirmish, before his retire, Mr. 
Norris was hurt in the breast with a pike, but not grievous ; Mr._Borroughs 
shot in the hand with a musket, and doth lose his middle finger. Capt. 
Price was shot in the thigh. After the overthrow, even upon the parting, 
Mr. Norris joining with the forces, notwithstanding his hurt, which bled 
much, led his men and the Hollock's [men] to the enemy, where they left 
him. This encounter was greedily sought, both of the Spaniards and our 
people, and was followed with such fury and courage on both sides, as the 
sharper encounter hath not been seen, where the Count Hollock's mus- 



APPENDIX. 521 



keteers did noble service. Of his 60 men there were 30 slain. The enemy 
fled : Count Holloek, mounted on horseback, followed the chace, and is 
thought to have killed with his own hand not fewer than 20. The enemy 
made a stand, and began to turn head again upon us. Mr. Norris caused 
the retreat to be sounded, when our men retired apace. In this retire Mr. 
Norris, what with bleeding, fighting, and labour, was at a point he could no 
further, whom the Count Holloek found, and caused a man of his to alight, 
set up Mr. Norris and his brother Henry upon horse, and so saved them 
both. There was slain, and since dead of their hurts, 600, being all 
Spaniards, whereof many were persons of accompt. Mr. Norris, after this 
victory, retired to Utrecht to us, for better cure of his wound, and con- 
ference with my Lord 

From Utrecht, 18 April. 

Your good Lordship's assured 
at commandment, 

R. North. 
Superscribed, 

To the right honourable my singular good Lord, 
the Lord Treasurer of England. 



[Art. JJ.] 

State Paper Office, Holland, vol. 32. 
Extract from a Letter from Mr. D'Oyley to Lord Burghley, 24 May, 1586. 

Right Honorable. Since my last letters, dated the 9th of May, sent by 
Mr. John Watts, his Excellency having made a view of the horsemen at 
Nickerken, and given them some contentment, he marched by Rhenen and 
Wageinngen to Arnheim ; and the 11th, Sir John Norris encamped with 
horse and foot before Nimeguen on the Betue, where the enemy held a 
sconce and 2 houses fortified, the one named Bemel, the other Van Loone ; 
and presently entrenched himself close, with 2 forts on both sides the 
enemy's sconce, and withal Sir Martin Schenk with some Dutch, &c. with 

3 X 



2 English companies, went into the Duke of Cleves country, to a place by 
the Toolhuise, where the Rhine divideth itself into 2 branches, the one 
called the Rhine, the other the Vael, and hath there made a strong fort, 
with 5 bastions, at the pomt of the 2 rivers, and hath cut a large ditch 
behind him, to make both the rivers meet. The place is impregnable, and 
so guarded with 2 men of war, tliat nothing can pass into Nimeguen. The 
2 younger Norrises, Edward and Henry, accompanied him to this enter- 
prise. 



Sir John Norris hath his commission to be Colonel- General of the Infantry, 
and to make and nominate all foot captains ; notwithstanding his Excellency 
hath ever since disposed them to his appetite. In that and all other injuries, 
if I could strip myself from kindred and affections, I could have a smgular 
subject to commend his valour and wisdom, but above the rest his especial 
patience in temporizing, wherein he exeeedeth most of his age. 



Arnheim, this 24th of May, 1586. 



Your Honor's most humbly to command, 

Tho. D'Oyley. 



I 



APPENDIX. 523 



[Art. KK.] 

State Paper Office, Holland, vol. 46. 
Marquis de Guasto to Baron Willoughby, 5 October, 1587. 

Molto Illustmo Signor, j 

II Trombetta di V. S. m' ha' portato la sua der 4 del presente insieme con 
una memoria a parte. Et par che vedo il desiderio ch'eUe tiene d'essere 
informato di quel tanto io volea che il Trombetta riferisse in nome mio ha 
da sapere che I'istello Trombetta mi disse, che quando io I'altro di stetti 
vicino a Berghes ella ussi et s'avanzo con cinquante cavalli con intentione di 
significarmi per un Trombetta che non voleva combatre con la gente ch'io 
haveva per esser piu della sua, ma che bene si saria fatta inanzi con i cia- 
qvianti cavalli, in caso ch'io I'havessi fatto con altretanti lasciando la mia 
troppa a dietro a romper le sue lancie con miei. Intorno a che feci rispon- 
dere al detto Trombetta che mi dispiaceva sino al anima di non haver alhora 
saputo tal desiderio di V. S. per che molto volontieri I'havrei di cio com- 
piaciuta essendo permesso in quel occasione il farlo, come ne la compiacerri 
sempre in ogn' altra, dove senza licenza del mio generale potesse disponere, 
di me come alhora poteva. Et gia che ho satisfatto a quello di che V. S. 
mi richiede circa il narrarle quanto dissi al suo Trombetta s'oggiongero di 
piii che non posso se non lodare et stimare assai cosi fatto desiderio di V. S. 
Io procuraro ogni via possibile affin che ambidue potiamo contentare questa 
n^ra volonta, o sia con licenza del mio generale o dovi I'occasione portara, 
ch'io possa farlo senz' essa. Et il medesimo U dico per molti Cavall" et sol- i 
dati che satisfarano sempre al desiderio di quel gentilhuomini ch'ella mi j 
scrive. Ringratio V. S. sommamente dei cani che diche di mandarmi, i j 
quali contracambiaro con qualche cosa del mio paese. II. D. conceda V. S. 
il compimento de suoi questi pensieri. De Turnhout alH 5 d'Ottobre, 1587. 

(Indorsed,) 

Copie d'un Pre envoye du Monsieur le Marques 
de Guasta a Monsieur le Baron de Wyllughby, 



Govemeur de Berghes, &c. 



3x2 



[Art. LL.] 

State Paper Office, Holland, vol. 51. 

Substance of the States' Answer to Lord Willoughby, 23 March, 1588. 

Le S"" do Willicby avoit propose aux Estats Generaux des Provinces Unies, 
de la part de Sa Mate quatre points : un touchant le Colonel Sonoy, le 2. 
touchant les bannys de ville de Leyden, le 3^ touchant I'accord entre les 
Provmces d'HoUand et Utrecht, le 4^ touchant la reduction ou transforma- 
tion de quelque cavallerie de Sa Ma*^^ en Infanterie. 

Sur le premier article respondent les dits Estats apres plusieurs allega- 
tions contre Sonoy, en conformite de ce qu'ilz avoint escript a Sa Ma^^ que 
neantmoins ilz estoint contents que quelque ofFre seroit con9eu par le Conte 
Maurice et le dit S'" de Willichby avecque advys des Estats, lequel seroit 
raande audit Sonoy et ses gens. 

Aquoy ledit S"^ de Willichby at autrefois respondu par aultre escript et 
requis que I'affau'e luy fut remys en conformite du desir de Sa Ma*e. Sans 
que les Estats y avoint encores respondu. 

Sur le 2^ point, les Estats se referent pour responce a ce qu'ilz ont desja 
escript a Sa IMa*^ y adjoustants qu'ilz feront publier un livret pour justifier 
I'execution faicte audit Leyden, lequel ilz feront tenir aprez audit S"^. 

Sur le 3^ point. Hz disent que les Provinces d'Holland et d'Utrecht sont 
este unies par I'Empereur Charles, I'annee 34 [1534]. Et que les Estats 
seront bien unis, sy ne fussent les particuliers qu'y y gouvernent contre 
lesquels ilz disent avoir requis redressement. 

Sur le 4^ disent ne pouvoir respondere pource que c'est un article du 
traicte faict avecque Sa Ma^e sur lequel doibt estre mande specialement 
a toutes les Provinces pour avoir leurs opinions sur iceluy. 

(Indorsed by Walsingham's Secretary,) 

" 23 March, 1588. The Substance of the 
States' Answeare to the Lord Wil- 
loughbies propositions." 



APPENDIX. 



525 



[Art. MM.] 



State Paper Office, Holland, vol. 60. 
Estimate of Lord Willoughby's Charges, by his Secretary, Morgan Colman. 

'' An Estimate of my Lord Willoughby's charges, expended 
in the Low Countries since the last of November, 1587. 
With some reasons why his Lordship hath been at so 
great expenses during his service there. 



r 

Untill the 
Siege at 
Berghen 



His Lordship's diet with ex- 
traordinaries in household from 
the last November, 1587, until 
the 13* Septemb. 1588, hath not 
been less than jglO a day, which 
for 288 days maketh 



For his 



bv water "1 



and land, and other extraordi- v 
naries in journey, at least .... J 
For espial intelligence and | 
other rewards for her Ma^^ ser- "^ 



Viz* 



i 



During 
the 

Siege 



V_ 



Vvice during that time 

' His Lordship upon the ene- -s 
my's approach found means to I 
put victuals and munition into 
the Town of Berghen for about . 

His Lordship's gifts in reward •^ 
to such as did service, and that 1 
wrought during that siege was j 

above J 

His Lordship's diet with other 
extraordinaries and carriages du- 
ring the siege was at least £\h 
per diem, which for 66 days 
maketh 



2880 



300 



1200 



2000 



4380 



7689 



400 



> 3309 



909 



1 J 



^ A remarkable arithmetical error will here be perceived. This sum of 



I assure your Honor that the sum above set down is, with the least, to 
what his Lordship hath disbursed. 

(Signed) Morgan Colman. 

Reasons declaring what hath urged his Lordship to sustain so 
great expenees. 

First, his Lordship's diet and extraordinaries in household hath been 
much above Her Majesty's allowance in regard the continual repair unto 
him which by reason of his place (urging to give entertainment unto all 
comers) could not nor may not be avoided, and the prices of all provisions 
(in those countries) are more dear to be bought than here ' : viz*, beef 3d. 
or 4d. a pound, mutton i^d. or 5d. and sometimes 6d. a pound ; a capon 3s. 
4s. 5s. or 6s. a piece, and so rateably for other provisions, and fuel extreme 
dear ^. 

His Lordship hath been forced very often to remove upon occasion of 
service, and many times by letters commanding it from hence ; wherein let 
others that know the country judge what a monstrous charge it is to hire 
hoys, boats, waggons, sledges, and men to lade and unlade, the custom of 
their own towns not allowing his Lordship's servants to do it. 

His Lordship for intelligence, espial rewards to such as have done ser- 
vice, and for gifts in the towns of garrison, (amongst the soldiers,) hath 
sustained very great charges, especially in the siege at Berghen. 

Likewise where as some have surmised that his Lordship receiveth profit 
by his horse and foot companies, I may boldly assure the contrary, for were 
it not more in respect of his honour to hold them, (wherein he shameth, for 
paltering, to have his reputation touched,) his Lordship long since would 
have yielded them up ; having drawn him into a most exceeding great 
charge, viz*. 



£900 should be, according to the number of days, jg990. No number of 
days at jS15 per day would make jg909 ; and it is curious that this error is 
not only carried through four different statements of the same account, but 
that it should have escaped the sharp eyes of Lord Burghley, who went 
through some items of the account, and made notes upon them. 

^ " Here," qu. England. 

2 These prices are almost incredible, calculating the value of money at 
only four times the present currency. 



First, he received not above 60 horse to make his company 200. 

He raised the rest from his own purse, where others have been allowed 
£10, others £20 for every horse, and to some (as I remember) 8 months 
without check, for raising and renforcing companies. 

If any horse were taken or otherwise slain or dead (by what chance 
soever) his Lordship hath supplied them from his purse. 

Svmdry Captains and Officers, native of those countries ^ (20 at least) 
which the States (for being too fast ours) have cassed since his Lordship 
occupied the place, have been received under his Lordship's Comet, horsed 
and armed from his purse, and do receive weekly (although Her Majesty 
payeth but 5s.) some 40s. some 30s. some 20s. some 15s. and some 10s.; most 
of them having been recommended by letters from hence. 

Lastly, if it be considered how weak his Lordship received his Foot Com- 
pany, and how strong (without allowance) he hath made and furnished 
them, maintaining them in such strength as he always hath mustered 40 or 
50 more than his number, the charges will appear great ; wherein he also 
maintains sundry Dutch gentlemen, as in his Horse band. 

His Lordship having no means to relieve the Captains and other gentle- 
men m service by Her Majesty's treasure (wanting therein a general power) 
hath upon extremities been forced to lend or give them from his own purse, 
and wanting sometimes money, hath delivered them a piece of plate or a 
jewel to pawn, to relieve them. 

His Lordship payeth yearly above £100 sterling for house hire. 

Further, when his Lordship was called (first) from Denmark thither, he 
raised a Company of 100 horse, without any allowance, with which he served 
almost two years, and received no pay from Her Majesty. 

In the encounter at Zutphen he lost many horses, and at other enter- 
prises (wherein his Lordship's person was not spared) for which he never 
was considered. 

His Lordship hath spent his whole revenue, being about 22 or £2300 per 
annum, save what was allowed unto my Lady. 

He hath sold great store of woods, and all the stock his father left him, 
amounting to an infinite sum. 

He mortgaged his land in Norfolk to supply his wants in these wars ; and 
further, by means of these wars, his Lordship is run at least into £4000 of 
debts. 




528 



APPENDIX. 



Lastly, he hath pawned his plate, silver vessell, and all his OAvn and my 
Lady's jewels for jgl200, which Mr. Allen borrowed upon interest in Hol- 
land during the siege. 

His Lordship since be entered as Colonel of the Infantry about June, 
1587, hath received only £4 per diem untill December, 1588, and since only 
£6 per diem, being General, part of which time also he is allowed but ^4 
per diem. 

His Lordship therefore most humbly (without demanding recompence) 
leaveth his service and hazard of his life unto Her Majesty's favorable 
acceptation ; beseeching only that towards his great expenses past (from 
the beginnmg of his Generalship) he may be allowed the £1000 per annum, 
which the most Honourable Council twice have awarded reasonable. That 
he may have present payment for the victuals and other provisions which 
he put into Bergen, or some reasonable imprest, to answer some part of his 
credit. Otherwise his Lordship knoweth not how to serve the place, with 
upholding Her Majesty's honour or his own reputation ; being enforced to 
take up the ordinary diet for his table upon credit. 

To conclude, his Lordship is most willing to yield his humble service and 
travail so far as with spending his whole revenue, he might from Her 
Majesty and that country be allowed the rest ; and if the States be di'awn 
but unto two or j£3000 sterling per annum, his Lordship from the time of 
their payment shall resign unto Her Majesty the said jglOOO, for intelli- 
gence ; being no way willing more than necessity compelleth him to draw 
Her Majesty into extraordinary charge. 



This paper is indorsed 13 Dec. 1588, and is in Duplicate, one copy being 
sent to Lord Burghley, (as some of his notes are upon it,) the other pro- 
bably to Walsingham. There is also a third paper, similar in effect, but to 
which no date has been assigned. It details, in a trifling degree more, the 
Aveakness of the companies delivered over to Lord Willoughby by Leicester 
and Norris ; and, in addition to great expenditure, mentions the sum of 
" £1500 received Martin La Phallia," (for ransom,) and further that " His 
Lordship hath spent £5000, which at this instant he oweth," instead of 
£4000 as above stated. 

Though this document is indorsed 13 December, it is probably somewhat 
later in point of date. It was most likely early in 1589, as it mentions that 
Lord Willoughby received only £4 a day till December, 1588, and since, 
only £6. 



APPENDIX. 



529 



[Art. NN.] 

A Monsr. de Wiliby. 

Monsi". de Wiliby. Vous m'avez tesmoigne trop d'affection et bonne vo- 

lonte en mon endroit, et scay que vous la faistes encores tous les jours trop 

paroistre, po^ estre oublier de ma part, ce que avissy n'adviendra jamais. En 

attendant que je vous en puisse donner quel que preuve de plus de contente- 

ment. Je ne veulx au moings laisser une occasion qui se presentoit de vous 

tesmoigner la souvenance que j'en ay qui est belle ; et I'estime que je fais de 

votre Vertu et Valeur que j'ay desire avec ceste occasion du voyage que 

mon Cousin le Vicente de Turenne va presentement faire vers la Royne 

Madame ma bonne seur. Que par sa bouclie I'assurance que je vous en ay 

cydevent donner, vous soit encore rafraischir et confirm er, ce que je vous 

prie croire que Jauray encore plus grand plaisir de pouvoir faire par quelque 

bon effect. Cependant je prie (Dieu) Mons^. de Wiliby vous avoir en sa 

sainete et Digne garde. Au Camp de Gisors le xx™^ jour de Octobre, 

1590. 

Henry. 
Indorsed, 

Le Roy de France at Mons''. Received at 

Grimsthorpe 21 Novembre, 1590, au soir. 

P. Hely. 



[Art. 00.] 



Lord Willoughby to the French King, 25 Nov. 1590. 



Sire, 



Je ne puis dire combien me rejouissoient vos lettres gratieux et favorables 
lesquelles me trouverent a ma maison au pays saisi d'un si grand maladie 
que je pensois mourir, et ce me fut tant plus griefue que je ne pouvais 
attendre Monsieur de Thurenne pour recevoir vos commandemens, et les 
tres desireux nouvelles de Vre Ma*^. Lequel me daigiie plus que je puis 
meriter, indigne de la moindre parte des souvenances et graces que Vre 
Ma*^ me fait Je me retire, Dieu louant pour cette heure comrae le 

3 Y 



530 APPENDIX. 



plus grand de ma vie, quand je suis venu a votre service : de . . . le prier 
aussi de me eontinuer eette grace d'etre toujours de vos soldats, neanmoins 
que je me confesse le plus indigne : et que je puis avoir tant de bonlieur 
que de vivre et moui'ir pour la service de votre Ma'^. Lequel il semble 
avoir elu parmi tons les princes du monde pour le Gideon de sa cause. 
Quand Dieu et ma maitresse permettront, je puis sincerement dii'e, que 
votre Majeste' me trouvera toujours en toute humility, obdssance, et fidelite, 
entre les plus prets a vous servir quand a la volonte. Ce desirant plutot le 
signaler que d'en pai'ler or je prie Dieu, 

Sire, 
Apres vous avoir baise tres humblement les mains, de vous donner une tres 
heureuse tres longue et tres victorieuse vie. 

(From a much blotted and altered copy.) 



[Art. PP.] 

A Monsieur. 

Monsieur Le Baron de Wilby. 

Monsieur, J'ai re9u votre lettre par laquelle j'ai reconnu I'afFection que (vous) 
portier au Roi mon maitre et votre courtoisie en mon endroit, de quoi je 
vous remercie humblement, vous assurant que vous ne sfauriez faire service 
au Prince du monde qui le reconnoit mieux en vers vous que lui, comme je 
pense que vous-memes avez reconnu en votre dernier voyage que vous fites 
en France. Je vous remandois sou vent dans mes lettres que j'ecris a sa 
Ma*^ I'assurant de votre prompte afifection a son service, pour laquelle s'il se 
presente jamais occasion de vous faire paroitre combien je vous suis oblige, 
assurez vous que je le ferai avec toute afifection. Je vous baise les mains et 
demeure. 

Votre humble, a vous servir, 

TURENNE. 

Puis que je n'ai ce bien de vous voir Mons"^. de Beaunoir vous dira par- 
ticulierement toutes choses. 

A Londres, ce . . . . Decembre. 

(Indorsed,) Received 2 . . . . 1590. 



[Art. QQ.. No. 1.] 

Lord Willughby to Lord Essex. 

My most honorable good Lord, 

I AM sorry I cannot for my infirmity attend you better, and most sorry to 
press your Lordship as I am inforced to do, contrary to my nature, and it 
may be to your Lordship's opportunity. Her Majesty's graces towards me 
the last day (in due regard to the same) would not by a negligence in my- 
self be overpassed, and yet my lame legs only will not let myself follow the 
same. And truly knowing the difference between gold and copper, I would 
rather join myself to the nobler metal, tho' I went in smoke away, than 
receive a tincture of an alchemyst saffron. I beseech your Lordship, there- 
fore, not for me only, (whom your Lordship can judge of,) but for that you 
will be like yourself, say so much for me but as your eye hath seen, and as 
the world thinks, and as the present danger of the place requires, whereunto 
I sue for guerdon and payment to be preferred. If her Majesty be pleased 
to accept judgement of Generals, as yourself, Kings, or soldiers, I am sure 
they wUl say as much for me as my competitors. If steel might try it, I 
am assured I have as good a mine as they ; if gold, they have only this 
advantage, that by her graciousness they are all so golden. And yet I 
equal them in this at least, I am and will be as faithful and dutiful, tho' I 
have not been, nor never be, so much as silvered. The occasions of her 
Majesties service in that place (I have, of long and late, by her Majesty's 
favour only pretended to,) require for questions within the town, for dif- 
ferences without, for insulting the adverse party, present remedy, or worse ; 
which being matter of state, I leave to your Lordship, better informed of 
the circumstances. Only here hence I conclude, I would not be an occasion 
to hinder her Majesty's service. If I myself be not so happy to have a short 
resolution which the sooner the better, howsoever it succeeds with me. And 
this favour I humbly require at your Lordship's hands, and so rest your 
Lordship's 

No less faithful and humble than professed, 

P. Wyllughby. 
Peregrine to Lord Essex, 
15th March, 1596. 

3 Y 2 



532 



APPENDIX. 



[Art. QQ. No. 2.] 



My most honorable good Lord, 

Howsoever your Lordship may he informed by variable fables, of those (who) 
have feigned ends of my life or death, wherein their power cannot alter the 
least heare, I doubt not (a sound heart bearing me faithful witness) but 
that your Lordship is thoroughly persuaded my loving and dutiful affec- 
tions are living and fresh to my uttermost to honor you, as those that with 
more Hmbs, and peradventure more hearts in one body, do daily record 
more personal attendance. Lameness is my infirmity, and no fault in my 
faith to your Lordship, and therefore I verily believe I am excused ; for if 
I erred, I know in honour, your Lordship would first summon me before 
you spoke of a serviceable friend uncertainly. In this hope I presume to 
prevail in commending this youth, Thomas Wyllughhy, my near kinsman, 
bred up with me, to be graced by your Lordship in some military rank, 
ha^aug served in the Low Countries and under your Lordship already ; and 
peradventure your Lordship will find him of better desert than he shews 
for, or those that make better muster than himself. I had rather he 
sh^ prove to your Lordship's hking, than trouble you to praise him, which 
is not my end, but the hope he will deserve it of you hereafter. I would be 
glad to know of your Lordship's employment, for howsoever you will dispose 
of me, I would send the best part of myself to attend you, and begin his first 
nursery of soldier under your honorable conduct. If I may in any service 
by me or mine satisfy that love and honor your Lordship hath vouchsafed 
so nobly to witness, I shall be right glad, and rest ready to attend so happy 
an hour and pleasing a commandment. 

Grimsthoi-pe, y^ 22^ May. 

Your Lordship's humble to command, 

P. Wyllughby. 
To the Earl of Essex. 
1597. 



[Art. QQ. No. 3.] 

My most honoured good Lord, 

I RECEIVED your Lordship's most noble extraordinary witnessed favours, by 
your letters the 9* July, from Plimmouth y^ 3^ of this present August ; not 
a little grieved it was not my good fortune to have waited on your fortunes ; 
and now your Lordship will think perhaps idle words, if I sh<i vow that had 
I known of your return and parting from Plimmouth, I would have set up 
my rest to have begun, and stated my vowed service to you from your 
storm, where others ended. I hope in God I shall never be so much behind 
to witness my love and devotion as this summer. Bafutt me if I live and do 
not prevent it the next year. I will pray for your Lordship as my own 
soul, and my country's good. Your Lordship knows humours at home, and 
can discern your enterprizes best known to yourself, according to the pro- 
portion and season of the year. But many hearts do bleed to think that (at 
home we cannot conceive) so great an adventure as yourself alone is so 
furnished, so provided, so cared and prayed for as we wish. It may be our 
infirmities reacheth not to the depth of that we may blame reckless. I will 
not ampMfy the point beyond my skill, and am assured that no man living 
can or will do more to make it good than yourself. I beseech the Almighty 
succeed your designs according to your projects and resolutions, that 
whereof you may receive all honor, and me all comfort. In the meanwhile 
I would be the gladdest man living to do you any service, as the Searcher 
of hearts knoAveth. And so I ever shall rest. 

Your Lordship's most humble and faithful 
to command, 

P. Wyllughby. 
Ld Wyllughby to the E. of Essex, 
Octobr. 1597. 

From a copy taken at Grimsthorpe by the Honourable C. Bertie Percy. 



534 



APPENDIX. 



[Art. RR.] 



My very good Lord, 



Whereas the bearer hereof hath long smce followed me, as well m the 
Low Countries as France, well known to Sir Francis Vere and Sir Nicholas 
Pai'ker, under whom he hath likewise served, and since of late hath been a 
poor follower of your Lordship in this last action of Spain, hath observed 
me to make this motion unto your Lordship in his behalf, that you would 
vouchsafe him your Lordship's favourable letters unto the Lieutenant and 
the other Commissioners for souldiers in Lincolnshire, that he may have of 
Muster Master of that shire now after the death of Sir John Buck, whose 
sufficiency I doubt not but your Lordship and the country will well approve 
by the effects, and himself and the soldiers to be committed to his charge ; 
by this means shall be the more ready and able to follow your Lordship in 
any youi' honorable attempt. I leave the man and his best preferment to 
your Lordship's good means, (if more forward suitors have not prevented 
him herem,) and myself wholly at y'^ Lordship's devotion, as one that will 
always remain 

Your Lordship's humble and faithful 
to command, 

P. Wyllughby. 



Willughby House, 
22d Novbr. 1596. 



To the Earl of Essex, Her Majesty's 
Privy Coimcil, and M^ of Her Ma- 
jesty's Horses. 



APPENDIX. 


535 


[Art. SS.] 




State Paper Office, Borders, vol. ' 


70. 


Extract from an account of the several fees and entertainments 
of the Lord Governor and Councillors. 1600. 


Berwick. 




The Lord Governor hath 40 household ser- 
vants at £6 135. M. per annum, whereof 
he keepeth not one— £266 13s. 4d. The 
rest of his fees, as appeareth by the Esta- 
blishment, is jg400 in all 


£. 
>666 


s. d. 
13 4 


£. s. d. 
>1090 13 4 


The Wardenry of the East Marches, ^ ann. . 424 







An House without rent. 




No deductions, saving for the Church, the Physician, 


and the Poor. 



\ 



INDEX. 



Alasco, John, 30. 

Alenfon, 284. 294. 

Allen, Cardinal, 259. 

Amsterdam, 88. 

Antwerp, 65. 102. 175. 

AppevilJe, 268. 

Argenton, 299. 

Armstrong, William, 321. 

Arnheim, 101,102. 

Arques, 264. 

Arragon, Catherine of, 3. 

Arras, Bishop of, 26. 

Arthur, Prince, 3. 

Arundell, Philip Howard, Earl of, 

259. 
Ashfield, 338. 346. 349. 351. 
Audley, Lord, 110. 114. 
Axtell, Axele, 108. 

Barbican, 22, 100. 439. 

Barlow, Bishop of Chichester, 30. 

Barneveldt, 162. 164. 

Bartue, 52. 

Baskerville, Captain, Sir Thomas, 

129. 221. 261, 284. 
Bato, Captain George, 113. 
Bemel, 101. 
Berck, 109. 
Bergen op Zoom, 97, 98. 108. 133. 

173. 175. 184. 226. 230. 232. 437. 
. Siege of, Journals 

of the, 215— 221. 



Berghes, Berges, 151. 212. 232. 
Berghstede (De), Bertegti, or De 

Berteye, xxxi. 
Bersted, Church of, xxxiii. xxxv. 

XXX vi. 
Bertie, Burbach de, xiii. 
' Edwai'dus, Edward, ix. 

Henry, 439. 

Hieronimus de, Jerome de, 

ix. xiv. 

Leopoldo, Leopold, ix — xii. 

Martinus, Martin, ix. 

Peregrinus, Peregrine, ix. 

his birth, 29. 

— his naturalization, 58. 

his succession, 57. 

his baptism, 60. 

his education, 61. 



his claim to the title 

of Willoughby, 62. 

his letter, 63. 

his marriage, 65. (See 



Willoughby.) 

PhUippus, Philip, ix. xiii. 

Ricardus, Richard, ix. 

his birth, 1. 

his marriage, 2. 14. 

his lines, 12. 

his interview with 



Gardiner, 15. 
his 



wife, 21. 



flight with his 



3 z 



538 



INDEX. 



Bertie, Ricardus, his retui'ii from 

exile, 36. 
his letters, 37- 41. 44. 



47, 48. 



his claim, 48. 
his death-bed, 53. 
his tomb, 55. 



Robert, 66. 439. 

Robertus, Robert de, ix. xxv. 

Roger, 439. 

Stephen, 53. 

Susamie, Susan, Countess of 

Kent, ix. 14. 

Thomas, ix. xxvii. xxx. 

Vere, 439. 

Willmus,WiUiam de,ix. xxvi. 



Bertieland, x. 

Bertiesteit, Barsted, Berested, Ber- 

sted, ix. xi. xiii. xxv. xxvii. xxxi. 
Berwick-upon-Tweed, 317. 319. 324. 

329. 332. 338. 376. 385. 390. 396. 

408. 
Willoughby deputed 

Governor of, 320. 
Treasurer of, 358. 



Betue, the, 101. 

Bingham, Sir Richard, 132. 138. 

143. 
Blunt, 207. 

Bodley, Sir Thomas, 245. 250. 
Boroughs, Sir John, 261, 
Bourbon, Cardinal of, 260. 
Bourne, 52. 
Bowes, Sir Robert, 321. 343. 

his letter, 347. 

Boys de Vincens, 299. 

Brabant, 25. 

Brandon, see Suffolk. 

Brill, 199. 

Brounker, Sir Thomas, 367. 

Buccleugh, 321. 323. 

Bucer, Martin, 8. 



Buck, Sir John, 320. 

Buckhurst, Lord, 121. 124. 400. 

Bugden, 9, 10. 

Burgh, Sir John, 310. 

Burghley, Thomas, Lord, 375. 381. 

Burghly, Richard, 279. 

Burleigh, Burghley, Cecil, Lord, 4. 
48, 49. 151. 

his death, 335. (See Wil- 
loughby, Suffolk, &c.) 

Buys, Paul, 161. 

Byron, Mareschal, 268. 

Cadis Malis, 318. 

Caen, 308. 

Cambridge, Queen Elizabeth's visit 
to, 37. 

Camphire, 158. 

Canterbury, xi. xii. xiv. xv. 

Cantise, ix. 

Carey, Sir Robert, 322. 324. 

Sir John, 324. 358. 401. 434. 

Cavendish, Sir William, 61. 

Cecil, see Burleigh. 

Sir Robert, 332. 

• Letters to, see Wil- 
loughby. 

Cesford, Carr of, see Ker. 

Champagnie, Monsr. 132. 

Charles the First, King, xxix. 

Chasteau de Loyr, 281. 

Chastillon, Monsr. 279. 

Chateau Dun, 275. 

Cheke, 7- 

Chequers, the, 40. 

Chidley, Mr. 138. 

Cilhe, 293. 

Colman, Morgan, 253. 

Corbell, 273. 

Corpus Christi College, 1. 

Fraternity, xxxii. 

Cranmer, George, his letter, 178. 



/ / 



INDEX. 



539 



Cressiac, George, 110, 111. 113. 137. 



Crozan, 33. 



Daumont, Monsr. 275. 

Davison, Secretary, 178. 

De Beauvoir la Node, Monsr. 274. 

De la Failla, Martin, 132. 137. 

Denmark, King of, 391. See also 

Frederick, King of. 
see Peregrine Bertie, 

Lord Willoughby. 
De Plaissis, Monsr. de, 279. 
Derby, Henry, Earl of, 259. 
De Rivers, Francis, see Perusell. 
De venter, 115. 
De Vere, Lady Mary, 47. 65. See 

Lady Willoughby. 
or Vere, Sir Francis, 121. 

129. 193. 221. 226. 231. 243. 251. 

438. 
66. 



Dieppe, 261. 264. 273. 280. 

Doesburg, 115. 

Domfront, Donphron, 297. 299. 

Dorp, Colonel, 161. 

Dort, 173. 

Dover Castle, ix — xi. 

D'Oyley, Mr., his letter, 101. 

Drake, 235. 

Druiy, Sir Drew, 433. 439. 

Sir William, 135. 138. 185. 

232. 261. 310. 
Dunldrk, 211. 
Durham, Bishop of, 358. 

Egbert, xi. 

Elizabeth, Queen, 33. 

her visit to Cambridge, 

37. 

her oration, 38. 

her letters, 43 ; to Leices- 
ter, 90 ; to Lord Willoughby, 

3 z 



174. 183. 189. 225. 237. 274. 288. 

316. 364. 408 ; to Sir Thomas 

Bodley, 253. 
Elizabeth, Queen, her visit at Kenil- 

worth, 48. 
her acknowledgment of 

Richard Bertie's claim, 51. 
her dismissal of the Duke 



of Anjou, 65. 

her negotiation with Den- 



mark through Lord Willoughby, 

74. 
her instructions to Lord 

Willoughby, 261. 
Essex, Earl of; 114. 406. 411. 415. 
Letters to, see Lord 

Willoughby. 
Elphmstone, 338. 
Elphegus, xi. xii. 
Elsinore, 67. 
Erbagh, Earl of, 33. 
Eresby, 363. See Willoughby. 

Barony of, 62. 

Errington, Nicholas, 145. 
Estampes, 271. 273. 
Ethelbert, xi. 

Ethelred, EdeLredi, ix— xiii. 
Eure, Lord, 325. 

Sir Wilham, 396. 

Faliza, Falaise, 304. 307. 
Famas, Monsr. 167. 
Flud, Edward, 216. 292. 300. 307- 
Flushing, 129. 
Frankfort, 31. 

Frederick the Second, King of Den- 
mark, 67- 

his letter to Elizabeth, 73. 

Friesland, West, 163. 

Gardiner, Bishop, 3. 14, 15—20. 
Gertrudenburgh, 183. 203. 209. 
2 



540 



INDEX. 



Gilpin, Mr., his letter, 160. 
Glover, Robert, 67. 
Gonzago, 113. 
Goody ere, Sir Henry, 114. 
Gosling, 24. 
Gowrie, Lord, 362. 
Granville, Cardinal, 132. 
Gravelin, 109. 
Gravesend, 24. 
Gray, Lady Mary, 40. 

. 1 Lord, 143. 

Gresham, Sir Thomas, 41. 

Grey de Ruthyn, ix. 

Grimsthorpe, 4. 11. 41. 326. 

Grimston, 229. 

Grysby, 14. 

Guasto, Marquis del, 113. 133. 437- 

Guevara, 353. 405. 432. 

Guitry or Gintry,Monsr. de,282. 286. 

Hague, the, 87. 115. 152. 182, 183. 

Hamburgh, 87- 

Hardwicke, Elizabeth of, 61. ' 

Haverah, Marquis of, 88. 

Hawtrey, 40. 

Helmbridge, 284. 

Hemming, Captain, 284. 

Henrici Quinti, ix. 

Henri Quatre, 261. 264—266. 

his march on Paris, 

268. 
his letter to the 

his reduction of Ven- 

his success, 285. 

his parting gift to 

Lord Willoughby, 309. 
his letter to Lord 



Queen, 271. 
dosme, 275. 



Henry the Seventh, King, xxvii. 

Eighth, xxix. 4. 

Thii'd, King of France, 85. 



Willoughby, 314. 
Henry the Second, King, ix, xiii. 
Fifth, King, xiv. 



of Navarre, 74. 76. 83—85. 

260. See Henri Quatre. 
Heydon, Christopher, 284. 
Hohenlo-HoUoch, Count, 93, 94. 127 

157. 
Home, Lord, 324. 
Honfleur, 309. 

Hume, Sir Alexander, 350. 353. 
Hunsdon, Lord, 324. See Carey. 
Huntley, Captain, 129. 
Hurst Castle, xxviii — xxx. 
Hurste, Castri de, ix. 

James, King of Scotland, 321. 
his letters to Willough- 
by, 340. 421 . 
Joinville, 275. 

Katherine, see Parr. 
Kelso, 433. 
Kenilworth, 48. 50. 
Kent, xi. 267- 

Earl of, 47. 

Countess of,"see Susan Bertie. 

Ker, Sir Robert, 322—324. 333. 336. 

352, 353. 375. 

of Ferniherst, 333. 

Keys, Thomas, 40. 
Killigrew, Mr. 176. 180. 248. 
Knolles, 109. 231. 

La Mott, 268. 

La None, 187- 

Lanowe, Monsr. 300. 

liatimer, 14. 

La Val, 283. 293. 

Lea, Captain, 284. 

Leeds, Priory of, xxxiii. 

Leicester, Earl of, 65. 81. 437. 



Leicester, Earl of, his appointment 
as General in the Low Countries, 
89. 

— his exertions, 101. 127. 

his recall, 1 40. 

his demise, 258. 



his letters, 87, 88. 102. 

108. 112. 
Le Mans, 281. 

Lennox, Charles Stuart, Earl of, 60. 
Le Verdin, 281. 
Lewson (Lu9on), 267. 290. 
Lily, William, 305. 
Lindsey, Earl of, 52. 
Lion Key, 22. 
Lloyd, Mr.,i.his letter, 127. 
Longueville, Monsr. Due de, 266. 

300. 
Lukeland, 315. 

Maidstone, xxxii. 

Mansfield, Count, 195. 

Mar, Earl of, 418. 

Mary, Queen of England, 4. 14.33. 

Queen of France, 4. 

Queen of Scots, 179. 

Maurice, Count, 108. 122. 140. 156. 

161. 
Mayenne, Due de, 260. 277- 304. 
Medenhhcke, 163. 181. 183. 
Mellavilla, 307. 
Mendoza, 277- 
MerccEurs, Due de, 279. 
Meurs, Count, 156. 
Middleburgh, 127. 191. 
Morgan, Colonel, 109. 122. 190. 195. 

200,201. 205. 249. 
Mosten, Captain, 284. 
Mounteagle, Lord, 42. 
Mountforte, 293. 
Mountjoy, Lord, 419. 
Musgrave, Richard, 370. 



Naarden, 161. 183. 

Navarre, see Henry of Navarre. 

Nemours, 270. 

Neville, Lady Margaret, 9. 

Nicholson, George, 422. "^ 

Normandy, 285. 

Richard, Duke of, xiii. 

Norreys, Norreis, Norris — 

General, 88. 97. 

Mr. 93. 

Sir John, 101. 110. 187. 

224, 225. 230. 

Sir Edward, 239. 



North, Lord, 114. 143. 
Norton, 376, 380. 
Nottingham, Earl of, 392. 401. 

Olivarez, 276. 
Oreanges, Baron, 279, 280. 
Ostend, 109. 128. 151. 175. 184. 235. 
Oxford, Earl of, 47. 65. 

Palsgrave, the, 30, 440. 

Paris, 268. 

Parker, 221. 231. 

Parma, Prince of, 93. 97. 139. 211. 
214. 229. 

Parr, Katherine, 4. 

Parsons, Richard, 259. 

Pelham, Sir William, 124. 147. 

Mr. 284. 

Pepper, Elizabeth, daughter of Tho- 
mas, xxvi. 

Peregrin, 349. 

Peregrine, 309. See Peregrine Ber- 
tie and Lord WiUoughby. 

Perrot, Sir Thomas, 113. 

Perusell, Francis, 25. 28. 

Petimnes, 284. 

Peyton, Sir John, 433. 439. 

Philip, King of Spain, 89. 192. 

Poland, Sigismund, King of, 30. 



542 INDEX. 


Pontoise, 297- 


Southampton, Wriothesley, Earl of, ' 


Pooly, 232. 


1. 16. 


Portugal, expedition to, 231. 


Spain, King of, 3. 435. 


Prussia, x. 


Spilsby Church, 55. 435. 439. 




Stafford, Sir Edward, 264. 265. 


Ranzow, 92. 


Stanley, Sir William, 110. 117- 120. 


Reade, Rede, Sir William, 145. 152. 
185. 


PHivTrrl 1 1 ^i 


St. Etienne, 264. ^ 


Rich, Lord, 433. 439. 


St. John Dasie, 293. 


Roxburgh, Lord of, 433. 


Stubbe, Mr. 95. 102. 


Russell, Sir William, 113. 145. 205. 


Sudeley, 5. 


210. 


Suffolciae, Catherina Ducissa, see « 


Ruthven, see Gowrie. 


Suffolk. 


Rycote, 127. 


Suffolk, Charles Brandon, Duke of, ^ 
3. 


Sable, La, 283. 293. 

Salines, or Saluces, Maria de, 3. 


8,9. 


Santon, 25. 


■ Charles Brandon, Duke of, 


Saunderson, Bishop, 52. 


7. 10. 


Say of Salop, daughter of, xxx. 


• Catherine, Duchess of, 1. 


Schenk, Sir Martin, 101. 205. 206. 
Scots, Queen of, 391. See also Mary, 


l-» /-\M ■fi*«r«4- w^rk^r.«-km /^^ O 


her widowhood, 4. 


Queen of Scots. 
Scroope, Lord, 321. 336. 364. 


l-.^-.. l,->++^».<M A « 1 1 


13. 34. 41. 47. 61. 


Selby, Mr. William, 327. 373. 382. 


her sons, 7. 


386. 388. 430. 






Captain, 405. 


14. 


Seymour, Lord Hem'y, 210. 


her escape, 21. 


T ni-(] *! 


her death, 52. See 

also Lady Willoughby. 


Sheffield, Charles, 439. 


Shirley, 120. 207. 


SwejTi, xii. xiii. 


Slu'ewsbury, Earl of, 61. 




Sidney, Lady, 252. 


TertoUe, 219. 


Sir Philip, 98. 108, 109. 


Tornhese, Monsr. de, 132. 


111. 


Tours, 277- 


l-fctfi /^i-krk*-V» 1 1 /< 


Treleburgh, 194. 




Skyner, Captain, 426. 


Trimville, Monsr. 282. 


Sluys,128. 130. 


Tm'enne, Vicomte de, 314. 


Soissons, 162. 


Twyae, Thomas, 52. 


Solmes, Count, 217- 219. 




Somerset, Duke of, 5, 6. 


Utrecht, 95. 163. 168. 


Sonoy, Colonel, 163,164. 173. 181. 


Uvedale, Captain, 129. 



INDEX. 



543 



Van Loone, 101. 
Vavasour, 138." 
Vendosme, 275. 

Cardinal of, 280. 

Villiers, Marshal, 217- 219. « 
Villierson, Marshal, 167- 

Walcheren, 158. 

Walsmgham, Sir Francis, letters to, 

see Lord Willoughby, Sir Philip 

Sidney, &c. 
Wanheim, 30. 
Waynman, 339. 
Wemcour, Cardinal of, 280. 
Wesel, 25. 27. 59. 
Widrington, Mr. H. 356. 
Wight, Isle of, xxix. 
Wilford, Thomas, 145. 196. 221. 

261. 282. 284. 
Wilkes, Mr. 127. 

Williams, Sir Roger, 129. 272. 300. 
Willoughby de Eresby, ix. 

Peregrine Bertie, Lord, 53. 

his embassy to Denmark, 

67. 



his second mission to Den- 
mark, 74. 

his negotiations, 76. 

his letters to Burghley, 



92. 95. 149. 151, 152. 157, 158. 
160—162. 173. 176. 193. 222. 231, 
232. 234. 238. 246. 285. 291. 297- 
313. 
to Cecil, 332. 334. 337- 



339. 343. 348. 350. 352. 357- 359. 
363. 365. 367, 368. 376. 381. 390. 
392. 399. 402. 405, 406. 411. 418. 
420. 422—426. 428. 
to the Earl Marshal, 



325—327. 



to EUzabeth, 81, 82. 



153. 267. 393. 412. 



Willoughby, Peregrine, his letters to 
Essex, 317. 319, 320. 329. 

to Henri Quatre, 314. 

to Ker, 344. 

to King James of 

Scotland, 341. 

■ ■ to Leicester, 75- 134. 



137. 

to Loch, 335. 

to the Lords of the 

Privy Council, 136. 158. 175. 191 

193. 210. 212, 213. 228. 230, 231. 

238. 243. 272. 297- 305. 329. 376 

397. 
to Nottingham, 392. 



402. 

to Walsingham, 74. 

76. 80. 84-86. 91. 121. 123. 130 
— 1.33. 135. 138. 140.142. 151.167. 
177. 186. 193. 2,36. 249. 267. 277. 
297. 
__ to Windebank, 



354. 



356. 



his narrative, 68. 

his arrival in Holland, 88. 

his appointment as Go- 
vernor at Bergen- op-Zoom, 97. 
his conduct at the battle 



of Zutphen, 110. 

his demands, 126. 

his appointment as gene- 



ral, 140. 



his advertisements and 

journals, 163. 275, 276. 281. 
his defence of Bergen-op- 



Zoom, 214. 
his return from Holland, 



252. 



261. 



his command in France, 



his reception by King 



Henry, 265. 



544 



INDEX. 



Willoughby, Peregrine, his services, 

267. 

his return to England, 311. 

his appointment to the 

Governorship at Berwick, 320. 

his authority, 369. 

his offer of a ship to the 



Queen, 411. 
his cares, sufferings, &c. 



423. 



his death, 431. 
his burial, 435. 
anecdotes of him, 435. 
his will, 438. 441. 



Willoughby, Robert, Governor of 

Normandy, 276. 
de Eresby, William, last 

Lord, ix. 2. 
Catherine, Lady, 3. See - 



Suffolk. 



Willoughby, Mary, Lady, 96. 99. 103. 
203. 

Sir Christopher, 63. 

House, 320. 

Wilna, Palatine of, 30. 
Wilson, Doctor, 7-140. 
Wingfield, 202. 243. 

Yachsley, Captain, 327. 
York, Rowland, 117- 120. 

Council at, 375. 

President at, 376. 

Yorkshire, Lieutenant of, 377. 

Bishopric, 377- 

Zealand, 24. 122. 163. 194. 
Zierikzee, Admiral of, 122. 130. 
Zouch, Lord, 433. 439. 
Zutphen, 110. 115. 254. 



END OF PART I. 



ERRATA. 

Page X, note 1, line 2, omit de, and for Greutzen read Grentzen 

— xl, line 7, for fine read fair 

— xliv, line 9, and page xlv, line 14, for iElphage read ^Iphege 

— 43, line 29, for three read twelve 

— 264, line 24, for Argues read Arques 

— 268, note, /or 1126 read 412 b. 

— 269, line 9, for St. Jermain read St. Germain 

— 271, note 1, /or La Nove read La None 

— 274, line 5, for B. la Motte read Beauvoir la Node 

— 282, line 21, /or Gintry read Guitry 

— 299, line 6, for Douphron read Donphron 



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